The Saudi Arabian government is reportedly working on putting together the most expensive wage package in the history of football in order to get Lionel Messi to play in the Saudi Pro League this summer. This information was reported by the British newspaper The Telegraph.
According to the source, negotiations with Messi’s representatives, which are reportedly being managed by the player’s father Jorge, are now taking place in preparation for the player’s status as a free agent following the expiration of his contract with Paris Saint-Germain at the end of June.
To play in Saudi Arabia until the summer of 2025, Cristiano Ronaldo is being given an annual salary of £165 million, but there are rumors that the entire deal might be worth as much as $400 million (£320 million), which would be more than twice as much as Ronaldo’s current salary.
The traditional method for acquiring the services of the best athletes in the world, such as when Ronaldo was signed in December, has been for states to get involved in the negotiations before a final destination club is chosen.
Former Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook, who was in control of the club when the Abu Dhabi sale was finalized in 2008, has been hired by the Saudi government to fill a similar post in the Saudi Pro League. Cook was in command of the club when it was sold to Abu Dhabi. It is expected that he will participate in any negotiations that take place in order to gain Messi’s signature.
Since January, PSG has had an offer on the table for a contract that would prolong Messi’s stay in the French capital for an additional 12 months. However, at this point, there is no anticipation that the offer would be signed.
Ronaldo signed with Al-Nassr, who is presently in second place in the league behind Al-Ittihad in the standings. The traditional adversaries of Al-Nassr are Al-Hilal, and if Messi were to join Al-Hilal, the most successful club in the history of the nation, it would rekindle the competition that the two teams had with Real Madrid and Barcelona during a period of nine years. In 2021, Al-Hilal was victorious in the tournament that is comparable to the Champions League and took home their fourth trophy overall.
It is anticipated that the Messi initiative, in conjunction with Ronaldo’s influence in Saudi Arabia up to this point – which has been deemed a success by the Saudi authorities – will ensure the country’s place as a final-club destination for the world’s most famous athletes and athletes from other sports. Mohammed bin Salman, the current ruler of Saudi Arabia, is credited with hastening the game’s growth as part of the Vision 2030 plan, which was devised by the crown prince and places an emphasis on the role of athletics in the modernization of the kingdom.
Messi is already the “ambassador” with the highest profile for the Saudi Tourism Authority (STA), and another huge publicity drive this week has come at the cost of hurting PSG. This week’s publicity campaign came at the cost of Messi upsetting PSG. The club has punished its most renowned player by docking him two weeks’ worth of pay and suspending him for the same amount of time for traveling to Saudi Arabia without authorization earlier this week to fulfill the obligations outlined in his STA contract.
After losing 3-1 to Lorient, PSG’s management carefully considered their options before deciding to penalize Lionel Messi. Because the player’s requests to visit Saudi Arabia were denied, the fact that he nonetheless traveled to Riyadh on a private plane was regarded as a violation of the player’s contract. PSG desired to make a statement in response to the fact that Messi did not show up for training on Monday; nevertheless, they have refrained from issuing a formal statement about the topic in order to prevent further inflaming the situation.