- Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami is scheduled to play Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr in the Riyadh Season Cup in February
- The round-robin competition will showcase global football icons Messi and Ronaldo in a potentially epic showdown at Kingdom Arena
In February, Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami is set to face Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr in the Riyadh Season Cup, setting the stage for a potentially epic showdown between the global football icons. Messi, an eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, joined Inter Miami in July, leading the team to a championship run in the Leagues Cup against clubs from the US and Mexico.
The Riyadh Season Cup, a round-robin competition at Kingdom Arena, will feature Inter Miami as the guest international side, along with Saudi Pro League teams Al-Hilal and Al Nassr. The exact dates for the matches have not been announced yet.
Inter Miami, in addition to Messi, boasts former Barcelona teammates Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, who collectively earned five La Liga crowns. On the other hand, Ronaldo, a five-time Champions League winner, is joined by former Liverpool standout Sadio Mane and former Inter Milan captain Marcelo Brozovic in Al Nassr.
Al-Hilal, featuring Brazil’s all-time leading scorer Neymar, who is currently recovering from a knee injury, completes the lineup for the Riyadh Season Cup. Notably, Ronaldo and Messi had a face-off last January when Ronaldo made his first appearance in Saudi Arabia after joining Al Nassr, and the Riyadh All-Star XI lost 5-4 to a Paris Saint-Germain side featuring Messi, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, and Sergio Ramos.