Lionel Messi: In January, Ronaldo made a shocking move to the Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr, where he will make around £173 million per year. That is by a long shot the highest salary in football, taking into account image rights and business obligations. Al-rivals Nassr’s in Riyadh, Al-Hilal, are getting ready to make an offer to Al-long-time Nassr’s Argentine opponent.
Messi signed a two-year deal with PSG in the summer of 2021, and he can renew it in June. After a hard first season in Paris, he has scored 18 goals and set up 19 others this season. He is happy with how he has adjusted to life in France this year.
But for the 2020-21 season, PSG was one of 10 clubs that were fined for breaking UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules. They were fined €10 million, and another €45 million was put on hold, along with Champions League sanctions if they didn’t follow FFP in the future. This is a very real threat if they don’t cut their spending.
This has stopped talks with Messi, and Al-Hilal, who can’t sign players right now because of a ban, is now planning a big move for the summer. Marca says that they are already putting together the money they will need to sign the Argentine.
It is said that Saudi Arabia would be willing to change their laws to let the 35-year-old come to their country this year. Such a move would put Messi and Ronaldo against each other in the capital of the Middle Eastern country. It would be like when they played against each other in the El Clasico from 2009 to 2018.
The Argentine has been linked to a return to Barcelona, but he hasn’t been answering phone calls from a negotiator close to Joan Laporta. Laporta wants the Argentine star to come back to the Camp Nou, but his way of negotiating hasn’t worked so far.
Messi seems to have cut all ties with Laporta. He feels that Laporta misled him about his future two summers ago, when the club couldn’t offer him a contract extension at the Camp Nou and the Argentine didn’t find out about this until August, when he moved to Paris to improve his life.
Messi won the award for Men’s Best Player of 2022 at the FIFA The Best awards, which were recently held in Paris. This was another sign of how far apart the two are. After the Barca president said he would be there, he didn’t talk to Laporta at all during the event.
