Despite now plying their trade on two different continents, the (arguably) two best footballers of all time, Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi, will renew their long time rivalry battle at the inaugural Riyadh Season Cup in February 2024.
Messi’s Inter Miami team have been invited to Saudi Arabia to participate in the newly-formed tournament, Riyadh Season Cup, which will also include Ronaldo’s Al Nassr team, and the other Riyadh-based team Al-Hilal.
While the two personalities have loomed large over football (and world sport) for the past two decades, Ronaldo, 38, and Messi, 36, are no longer spring chickens, and this could be the final head-to-head showdown for their respective careers.
Ronaldo, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner is expected to challenge the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and recent World Cup winner, Messi, who joined the US squad last July and blitzed a championship run in the Leagues Cup against Mexican and US clubs.
Messi famously led his native Argentina to World Cup victory in Qatar last year beating France in possibly the most nerve-wrecking football match of all time, and he has long been a rival of Ronaldo’s native Portugal.
“The excitement and global interest that we expect this tournament to generate expands upon one of our main aspirations for Riyadh Season,” said Turki Alsheikh, chairman of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority.
The Riyadh Season Cup is scheduled for the first week of February at the Kingdom Arena, and although the schedule has yet to be announced, the three competing teams will play in a round-robin tournament.
This could be the 21st Century’s final Ali vs Frazier moment. Let’s see what happens.
