Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal – PSG / Messi and Ronaldo united against their country: the Saudi project for the 2030 World Cup

Thursday, PSG faces a selection made up of the best players from the clubs of Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr in a match with heavy symbolism. Since luck does things well, it will be, by the way, Cristiano Ronaldo’s first match since his arrival in the largest country in the Middle East. So, on paper, Riyadh has already won: this Thursday, it’s yet another remake of the Messi-CR7 duel that should be replayed, minus the stake.

The image will put an incredible spotlight on Saudi Arabia, launched at high speed but also with a lot of delay in its sportwashing operation. After the LIV Golf, the rally-raid, Formula 1, the approaching MotoGP, the Asian Games, the Saudi Tour and even the Diriyah Tennis Cup, the kingdom has decided to tackle the most popular sport in the world: football . The takeover of Newcastle was only one step in the Saudi strategy. The more so secret dream of Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince, is now to organize the 2030 World Cup with Greece and Egypt.

In this battle, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi risk being tortured. Because, opposite, Portugal will be a candidate, alongside Spain and Ukraine. Argentina is also thinking about it, along with Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay, to celebrate 100 years since the creation of the World Cup. Will the two stars give in to Saudi advances?

Ronaldo, ambassador and influencer

In a sense, Cristiano Ronaldo has already crossed the Rubicon. “The investment in Ronaldo is linked to two thingsdeciphers Jean-Baptiste Guégan, specialist in the geopolitics of sport. First, someone had to be an ambassador. If Al Nassr denies that 2/3 of the 200 million euros will go to an ambassador contract, from the moment he sets foot in Saudi Arabia, he becomes the country’s ambassador in a concrete way. We are talking about the first influencer on Instagram“.

Since then, the tone has not changed. Even Miguel Albuquerque, president of the regional government of Madeira, historical support of the star, considered that a promotion of a foreign candidacy would be an act “unpatriotic” with the Diario de Noticias.

Messi, Argentinian flag bearer… until the end?

For Lionel Messi, we are not there yet. Under contract with PSG, a Qatari entity, in discussions to extend, his sporting future does not seem to go through Saudi Arabia in the short term, not before 2024 in any case, the date of the awarding of the 2030 World Cup. Above all, he has always pushed for an Argentina bid in 2030, even showing up in 2017 with Luis Suarez with two separate shirts for the same bid.

Fernando Marin, coordinator of the Argentinian project, then explained to AFP that Messi would be with his country of origin: “He will be with us in this initiative, just like Suarez certainly. We talked to Leo about our goals, and he thinks it’s doable. He showed a real desire to help us. He will probably be the standard bearer for our candidacy“.

“Communication mercenaries”

Messi and Ronaldo could therefore become geopolitical exceptions. In recent history, players having supported foreign projects while their country was a candidate, it has never been seen. “Against their country, it would be newbelieves Jean-Baptiste Guégan. But who have supported other candidacies, yes. There was Guardiola and Zidane who took monstrous checks for Qatar in December 2010. But that’s still a fairly recent phenomenon. There was a turning point in the 90s. Players were then associated with the organization of these mega-events which go beyond the framework of sport. We then use the popularity of the players for this. Now, there’s a flip side to that, which is that players become mercenaries in terms of communication. I’m not sure it’s ultimately so productive“. Except for some bank accounts…

With Glenn CEILLIER