File image of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi together© AFP
Ever since Cristiano Ronaldo made a much-publicised move to Saudi Arabia club Al-Nassr, the football league in the country has been getting unprecedented attention. Last week, Lionel Messi Parios Saint-Germain also toured the country and played a block-buster friendly against Saudi All Star XI, which also had Ronaldo in the side. Ronaldo also made a winning start to life in the Saudi Pro League as he led Al Nassr to a 1-0 victory over Ettifaq on Sunday in his first match since becoming the best paid footballer in history.
The Portuguese superstar didn’t score but there were promising signs for Al Nassr, who are eyeing domestic and continental silverware after the 37-year-old moved for deals totalling more than 400 million euros. Since Messi’s appearance in a friendly in Saudi Arabia, rumour mills have been working overtime over a possible move of the Argentine superstar to the West Asian country.
Now, the General Secretary of the Saudi Football Federation, Ibrahim Alkassim, has given a statement on the issue. “At the moment we do not know anything about a possible Lionel Messi arrival, although I do not hide that, as Saudi Federation, we would like to have him one day in the domestic league,” Alkassim told MARCA.
“The idea of the Federation is always to improve our football, and of course we would like to see Cristiano and Messi in the same league again, but the truth is that we don’t know anything now.”
According to several reports, Saudi clubs Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal are interested in signing Messi following Ronaldo’s arrival at rivals Al-Nassr.
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