Leo Messi reaches Cristiano Ronaldo: the avenue of sunset leads to Arabia

Leo Messi seems set to retrace the path traced by the eternal rival, that Cristiano Ronaldo that a year ago, annoyed by the lack of proposals that did not take into account his noble rank, last summer he packed his bags and emigrated to the most gold-paved championship in the world, that of Qatar.

The operation in this case too is colossal. Saudi sources announce an agreement of around 400 million salaries a year: a figure that would be guaranteed by Al-Hilal, the rival club of Al-Nassr where Cristiano plays instead who, as a humble admission, is «went to Arabia to change football» against a fee of 200 million per season, exactly half of what Messi would receive (and this already marks a distance between the two dioscuri who have marked the last twenty years of modern football).

Leo Messi’s rift with Paris Saint Germain appears unsolvable. The Argentine has just been suspended for two weeks for failing to comply with internal regulations. In fact, he did not inform the club of the out-of-town trip, let’s say, precisely to Qatar, for issues related to some of his sponsorships. Or perhaps, more likely, it was to directly negotiate his move over there.

Net of the extra-large figures circulating in these hours, we are witnessing, this is the truth, al slow but gifted decline of two stars, who have walked towards the avenue of sunset following the trail of cash rather than the glory or respect of their extraordinary career. Messi turns 36 in June, Cristiano is two more. The best, for both, has already passed. The new generation, whose most prestigious points of reference are Mbappé in Haaland, has already taken their place on the scene.

Messi and Cristiano are two champions to decline with a past tense. Cristiano, at Christmas 2022, adjusted his contract, signing a three-year contract with Al-Nassr. Soon Messi will join him too, who sold to cash after the suggestion, not very concrete, of a sensational return to Barcelona. Arabia as a land not promised so much as promoted as the final destination of champions who really don’t think about quitting. The conquest of the World Cup in Qatar, the first of his career, has satisfied the hunger of Fleawithout however silencing his desire for football.

It’s not the fun he’s looking for in Qatar, this is clear, and perhaps he should ask his ex-rival Cristiano for information, who seems increasingly annoyed and grumpy, perhaps frustrated by the fact of playing in a mediocre tournament with almost no media coverage. The famous cape, the Bisht, the traditional Arab garment, with which Messi was warmly encouraged (or perhaps forced, who knows) to celebrate winning the World Cup a few months ago in Doha is closed in a wardrobe, ready to be worn again once, like a simulacrum, from the strongest footballer of these modern times.

Someone called that staging a farce, others considered it a courtesy gesture: perhaps it was simply an anticipation, a premise, the prologue of a new story.

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