"Whoever can, can,"
said the cheerleader and legislator from Santa Fe
Amalia Granata
a few months ago during a session in the Chamber of Deputies of her province.
Guided by this logic, the Saudi authorities act
, who spare no money when they propose something.
In their high season of sporting events, they had the pleasure of coming face to face with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo
in Riyadh in a friendly between
Paris Saint-Germain
and
a team led by Marcelo Gallardo
and made up of players from
Al-Hilal
and
Al -Nassr
, the two most winning teams in the history of that country's league (18 and 9 titles, respectively), which
the French team ended up winning 5-4 with an early goal from the captain of the Argentine national team.
Four days after the final of the Spanish Super Cup between
Barcelona
and
Real Madrid
at the
King Fahd
stadium (and the end of the 2023 edition of the Dakar Rally) and just a few hours after
Inter won the Italian Super Cup there against Milan
, the coliseum of the Saudi capital, with a capacity for 68,000 spectators, was once again the epicenter of the gaze of those interested in sports.
For this to happen, it was necessary for
the General Entertainment Authority of that country to disburse 10 million euros to take PSG to Riyadh for a few hours
.
The exclusive attraction of this event was
the clash between Messi and CR7, the 37th between the two
since that first one almost 15 years ago, on April 23, 2008, between Barcelona and Manchester United at the Camp Nou for one of the semifinals of the Champions League (tied 0-0).
The two best footballers of the 21st century had not faced each other for just over two years
: on December 8, 2020, Juventus beat Barça 3-0 as a visitor with two goals from the Portuguese.
Statisticians will tell in a few years that Messi opened the scoring after 3 minutes of action, after an assist from
Neymar
, and that he left the field 17 minutes into the game, when
Christophe Galtier
withdrew seven of his 10 starters (he had already been
Juan Bernat was
expelled
at the end of the first chapter for an offense against
Gonzalo
Pity
Martínez
).
Marquinhos
,
Sergio Ramos
,
Kylian Mbappé
and
Hugo Ekitike
scored the winner's other goals and
Neymar
missed a penalty.
The chronicles will also state that
this friendly marked the debut of Cristiano Ronaldo on Saudi soil
.
Although he signed his contract with Al-Nassr two weeks ago (200 million euros for two and a half years), he still has not made his official debut because he had to serve two dates of suspension that he had received when he was still a
Manchester United
player. .
Before his presentation in the Saudi league, which will take place on Sunday against Al-Ettifaq, he dispatched, in 61 minutes of work, with two goals (one from a penalty after a punch by Keylor Navas that left traces on his face) and a couple of brushstrokes of his talent, which does not go extinct despite his 37 years.
The reports will also give an account of the
return to a field of Marcelo Gallardo, two months after having closed his highly successful cycle in River
.
It was the turn of the
Doll
to formally command a group of players whom he had met two days earlier in a light training session and with whom on Wednesday he had shared a celebration of his 47th birthday that
Turki Al-Sheikh
, adviser to the Royal Court and Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority.
His most striking intervention was the hug with Messi when the man from Rosario was replaced.
Beyond what happened on the pitch,
among the winners on Thursday was the Saudi monarchy,
one of the main allies of the United States in the Middle East, which (was) gifted another sporting mega-event.
Different international organizations denounce that these shows have the exclusive purpose of giving a facelift to a state that is highly questioned for the human rights violations that are committed in its territory.
Impervious to these questions,
the authorities of the kingdom double the bet
.
In these hours the rumor spread that at the end of this season, when his relationship with PSG ends,
Messi could become a reinforcement for Al Halil, who would be willing to pay him 300 million euros per year
.
The idea is to put him together with CR7 in a league that grows with the help of a wallet.
The final station of this project would be to obtain the headquarters of the 2030 World Cup.
R.
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