Well-informed sources revealed that Lionel Messi’s father Jorge arrived in Saudi Arabia this week after the Paris Saint-Germain star was offered a transfer proposal that would put him the same wage packet as Cristiano Ronaldo.
It appears Lionel Messi’s father is preparing for his son’s life after PSG after he was seen in Saudi Arabia.
The sources pointed out that Jorge, who is also the agent of Messi, was seen in Saudi Arabia to begin negotiations with Saudi Pro League side Al Ittihad.
In photos circulating on social media, the Argentine was spotted talking to a local while wearing dark shades and carrying a satchel.
The football icon will be making another visit to Saudi Arabia will his family in March, the sources added.
This recent planned visit has renewed speculations about Messi joining the Saudi Pro League after Ronaldo’s eye-watering Al Nassr deal last year – widely reported to be worth more than 200 million euros over 2 1/2 years.
He is reportedly set to be offered a deal worth $430 million a season to make a move.
The sources further pointed out that the Saudi authorities will help Al Ittihad to make the deal, just like Al Nassr deal last year.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (MBS) is extremely excited about the possibility of superstar Lionel Messi joining the nation’s Pro League, according to the sources.
Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodriguez will pay £250,000-a-month for 17-room Saudi Arabia hotel suite before moving into £10.5m mansion.
However, this will not be a such problem for the Portuguese superstar, who has been made football’s highest-paid player after joining Saudi’s Al Nassr.
Saudi Arabia is becoming a sporting superpower after the de facto ruler MBS has spent billions of dollars on high-profile international sporting events in a bid to bolster its international reputation.
Earlier, Richard Edelman, the CEO of the $1bn public relations firm Edelman, signed $9.6m in deals with the Saudi government over the past four years to sanitize the kingdom’s image.
The work, which was directed at American audiences and was projected to net Edelman more than $5.6m (£4.6m) in fees, included sending regular press releases that celebrated topics such as “mainstreaming women in business” and “doubling down efforts to empower women and youth”.
Edelman’s foreign agent filings suggest that by the time its work is completed, the firm will have earned more than $3m from the company developing Neom.
On 31 May 2022, only days before Edelman published his blogpost warning of the growing divide between democracy and autocracy, he signed a $787,500 (£652,609) contract to provide the Saudi ministry of culture with “PR and communications services”.
The pitch is part of Saudi Arabia’s effort to position itself as a modern destination, ridding itself of the “pariah” status it garnered with the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Along the same line, Yahoo Sports charged that the Saudi regime is using high-profile international sporting events in a bid to bolster its reputation.
Professional golf has been roiled this year by the emergence of LIV Golf, a Saudi-funded breakaway circuit that has lured stars from the US PGA Tour with eye-watering prize money of $25 million per tournament, the sports website said.
According to the source, LIV’s CEO, Greg Norman, stands accused of tearing golf apart with help from the deep-pocketed Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), in what activists describe as “sports washing” –- using sport to distract from human rights abuses.
Meanwhile, media reports affirmed that LIV has been denied broadcasting rights by major broadcasting giants. CBS, NBC, and ESPN have already pledged their loyalty to the PGA Tour. Apple TV was one of the major broadcasters LIV was counting on.
However, recently, as per the sources, Apple TV and Amazon have also denied LIV the opportunity to be broadcast on their platforms. The streaming service termed the Saudi funded series as “too toxic” for them to broadcast it on their platform.
