Argentine superstar Lionel Messi will play in Saudi Arabia next season under a “huge” deal, a source close to the negotiations told AFP on Tuesday. “Messi is a done deal. He will play in Saudi Arabia next season,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity and without naming the club. “The contract is exceptional. It’s huge. We are just finalising some small details,” added the source, who is not authorised to speak to media.Asked about the comments, Messi’s current club Paris Saint-Germain simply noted he remains under contract until June 30. A separate PSG source said: “If the club had wanted to renew his contract, it would have been done earlier.”Messi’s expected arrival in the oil-rich kingdom follows in the footsteps of his arch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who joined Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr in a massive deal in January. Ronaldo’s agreement to June 2025 is said to total more than $439million, making him the world’s highest paid athlete according to Forbes. Both deals are being bankrolled by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds with more than $620 billion in assets, the source said.”The negotiations didn’t take as much time as the ones with Ronaldo. As we now know the recipe to contract world-class players. It’s Saudi Arabia that brought him not a specific club. The Money comes from one place — PIF.” Lionel Messi is named World Sportsman of the Year 🐐 pic.twitter.com/sXn0BSmPpo— GOAL (@goal) May 9, 2023 Ronaldo’s arrival has not had the impact Al Nassr would have hoped for on the pitch. They have lost top spot in the Saudi Pro League table and are out of the running in the King’s Cup and Super Cup. French coach Rudi Garcia departed in April.Messi, who turns 36 in June, has had two lacklustre seasons in Paris after a glorious era at Barcelona where he won four Champions League and 10 La Liga titles, and is still worshipped by the fans. The record seven-time world player of the year, joining a mouth-watering attack featuring Kylian Mbappe and Neymar, scored just 11 goals in his first season as he helped PSG to a routine Ligue 1 title. But PSG have got no closer to a coveted maiden Champions League victory, bowing out twice in the last 16 even with the illustrious Argentine in the line-up.Frustrations boiled over last week when black-clad PSG protesters let off flares and sang hostile chants targeting the underperforming Messi, Neymar and Italian midfielder Marco Verratti. The angry scenes contrasted with Messi’s career-crowning moment in December, when he led Argentina to a breathless World Cup final victory over Mbappe and France in Doha to fill the biggest gap in his resume. Qatar’s emir draped him in a traditional bisht robe at the trophy ceremony, a reminder of the fossil-fuel riches pouring into football and Messi’s bank account via PSG.##NAJAVA_MECA_7244857##However, Messi is also a highly paid tourism ambassador for Qatar’s neighbours and sometime rivals Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter that is attempting to diversify its largely single-stream economy.Messi’s uninspiring two-year stint at Paris Saint-Germain is set to come to an acrimonious end with a move to join long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia, just months after his crowning glory at the 2022 World Cup. For his legions of admirers, the debate about Messi’s right to be regarded as the greatest footballer in history was officially put to bed when he led Argentina to the title in Qatar in December. But his career at the highest level in Europe appears to have finished on a low note.Messi was suspended by PSG last week for making an unauthorised trip to Saudi Arabia. He has scored 31 goals in 71 appearances for the French champions and is likely to win a second consecutive Ligue 1 title later this month, but failed in his mission to help PSG to a maiden Champions League triumph, suffering back-to-back last-16 defeats.Anything for Messi’s signature – The most lucrative offer in the history of sports!Barcelona had been hopeful of bringing the 35-year-old back to the Camp Nou, where he won 10 La Liga titles and four Champions League crowns before a tearful departure in 2021. Instead though, Saudi Arabia, regularly accused of sportswashing, or hosting the biggest names in sport to deflect attention from its human rights record, will be able to boast having arguably the two greatest players of the modern era in their unheralded domestic league.Ronaldo is playing for Al Nassr, while a source close to the negotiations who told AFP that Messi’s move to Saudi Arabia was a “done deal”, stopped short of saying which club the Argentine will join.The absence of a World Cup winners’ medal had long been Exhibit A in the argument about why Messi did not rank above Pele and Diego Maradona in football’s pantheon. But with Argentina’s victory over France in last year’s jaw-dropping World Cup final in Doha, the case was surely closed.##EDITORS_CHOICE##In a glittering career that has spanned three decades, Messi has won 37 club trophies, seven Ballon d’Or awards and six European Golden Boots. There has been a Copa America title, an Olympic gold medal and a list of scoring and statistical records that may never be beaten. In his final World Cup appearance, Messi scored twice as Argentina battled to a 3-3 draw in extra time before prevailing on penalties. Not even Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick for France could upset Messi’s appointment with destiny on a night that seemed pre-ordained.Whether Messi really is the ‘greatest ever’ is a question, of course, that is as futile as the answer is subjective. What is undeniable though is that by sheer volume and range of silverware, Messi has won more than the other serious rivals to his “G.O.A.T” status: Pele and Maradona. While Pele’s three World Cup triumphs remain unrivalled, the Brazilian icon’s club career pales in comparison to Messi’s.🚨 Lionel Messi’s move to Saudi Arabia is a “done deal”. The contract has been called ‘huge’.(Source: AFP) pic.twitter.com/8jpqHuaCZH— Transfer News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) May 9, 2023 In his peak years with Barcelona, the Argentinian regularly scaled the pinnacle of European club football in the Champions League — arguably a technically superior arena than international football. Maradona meanwhile won only one World Cup, and never lifted a European Cup during a club career in Europe remembered mostly for spells with Barcelona and Napoli. The counter-argument of course is that Pele and Maradona played in an era where players were offered far less protection than the likes of Messi and Ronaldo. Pele hobbled out of the 1966 World Cup after taking one brutal tackle too many; Maradona was also subjected to roughhouse treatment throughout his career.Maradona’s former international team-mate Jorge Burruchaga is reluctant to compare players across generations. Burruchaga, scorer of the winning goal — set up by Maradona — in the 1986 World Cup final victory over West Germany has said simply that Messi is the greatest player of his era.The last name on that list is potentially leaving the European elite for good, but Messi is yet to end an international career that has already produced 102 goals in 174 matches. The Copa America in the United States next year could still provide a fitting swansong.©AFP
