International News: Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal ready to offer Messi ‘ridiculous’ US $350-million-a-year deal to join them now

Photo Credit: FIFA

By Rubén Morales Iglesias: If we thought the US $210-million-a-year-deal Al Nassr are reportedly paying Cristiano Ronaldo is huge, we’ve got to call the US $350 million rival club Al Hilal are ready to offer World Champion Lionel Messi ‘ridiculous’.

Spain’s Mundo Deportivo reported on Thursday that the Saudi giants are willing to pay Messi for a move right now in January, a minimum of US $300 million and a maximum of US $350 million a year.

Messi’s Paris Saint Germain (PSG) contract expires at the end of the present season on June 30, but the Saudi club are willing to pay his transfer fee to have him now to fight their rivals Al Nassr in the Saudi League and to play for them in the Club World Cup scheduled for February. Al Hilal are the present Asian Champions.  

The question is if Messi would be willing to move to Saudi Arabia where the customs and climate are so much different. Word in the international grapevine is that Cristiano Ronaldo only accepted the Al Nassr offer when he couldn’t get a top European club to sign him after his not-so-pretty separation from Manchester United following his heavy criticism of the British club.

PSG, who are on a mission to win the UEFA’s Champions League, are offering Messi a new contract but he has reportedly not signed yet, according to Forbes magazine.

The Al Hilal and Al Nassr rivalry is known as the regional ‘Clásico’ or the ‘Riyadh Derby’, Mundo Deportivo said.

If Messi and PSG were to agree to the Al Hilal offer, it would renew the biggest player rivalry in the world with him and Cristiano Ronaldo going at each other as in their days at Barcelona and Real Madrid.

The Saudi government is reportedly ready to back Al Hilal with sponsorship, as they did with the Al Nassr Cristiano contract, to gain support for their bid to host the 2030 World Cup.