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Argentina international and PSG forward Lionel Messi will play in Saudi Arabia next season under a “huge” contract.
Messi’s record move to Al Hilal is “done” and the Argentine is set to reunite with Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia, according to reports.
“This deal is unusual. It’s huge. We’re working out some of the finer details,” a source close to the negotiations told AFP on Tuesday.
When asked about this comment, Messi’s current club, Paris Saint-Germain, simply said that Messi’s contract remained until June 30th.
“If the club had wanted to renew his contract, they would have renewed it sooner,” another PSG source told AFP.
AFP news agency reported that Messi has agreed to move to the Middle East. There is talk that Al Hilal are lining up a £400 million ($505 million) contract for him, which would see him overtake his eternal rival Ronaldo as the highest-paid player on the planet. will regain its position as
The 35-year-old, who won the World Cup with Argentina, was suspended by Qatari-owned PSG last week for an unauthorized trip to Saudi Arabia, where he is a tourism ambassador.
Messi’s expected arrival in the oil-rich kingdom follows in the footsteps of arch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who joined Saudi Pro League club Al Nasr in a blockbuster deal in January.
Ronaldo’s contract, which runs until June 2025, is said to be worth more than 400 million euros (approximately 43.9 billion yen), making him the world’s highest-paid athlete, according to Forbes.
Both deals are funded by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds with more than $620 billion in assets, the people said.
“The negotiations didn’t take as long as the negotiations with Ronaldo. We now know the recipe for signing a world-class player,” the source said.
“It is Saudi Arabia that brought him, not a particular club. The money comes from one place – from the PIF.”
Ronaldo’s arrival has not had the impact Al Nasr expected on the pitch.
They lost their top spot in the Saudi Professional League standings and missed out on qualifying for the King’s Cup and Super Cup.
French coach Rudi Garcia resigned in April.
Messi, who turns 36 in June, remains revered by fans after spending two lackluster seasons in Paris following a glorious spell with Barcelona where he won four Champions League titles and 10 La Liga titles. ing.
The seven-time Player of the Year joins a tantalizing attacking line-up featuring Kylian Mbappé and Neymar, and he scored just 11 goals in his first season as he helped PSG win the annual Ligue 1 title. Not recorded.
However, despite having the famous Argentine in their lineup, PSG have been eliminated in the last 16 twice and are no closer to winning their first Champions League victory.
Last week, black-clad PSG protesters fired smoke bombs and chanted hostile chants targeting underperforming Messi, Neymar and Italian midfielder Marco Verratti. Dissatisfaction boiled over.
The angry scenes were in sharp contrast to the moment Messi reached the pinnacle of his career in December. That time, he filled the biggest hole in his career by leading Argentina to a breathtaking World Cup final victory over Mbappé and France in Doha.
Qatar’s emir dressed Messi in a traditional Bisht robe at the trophy ceremony, a reminder of the fossil fuel wealth flowing into Messi’s bank account through football and PSG.
But Messi is also a highly paid tourism ambassador for Qatar’s neighboring and sometimes rival Saudi Arabia, according to AFP news agency. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter seeking to diversify its largely single-stream economy.
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