Lionel Messi has chosen Inter Miami as his next destination. He will receive a substantial salary, but much less than the sum offered to him by Saudi Arabia, which would have even increased in recent days…
The Lionel Messi soap opera in Saudi Arabia will have ended very quickly. The Argentinian, who we knew about leaving for Paris for weeks, announced on June 7 in the Spanish press that he had decided to wear the Inter Miami jersey in the United States next season. His transfer to Saudi Arabia was however acquired according to several observers, who already saw “the Pulga” joining two other football legends, Ronaldo and Benzema, in this championship boosted with petrodollars.
It must be said that Lionel Messi already had a very special link with the Saudi kingdom, he who had caused a scandal at PSG at the beginning of May, after an unauthorized trip to Riyadh. Ambassador for tourism in the peninsula, the Argentinian left-hander went there to honor an XXL contract, worth around 30 million euros. One could therefore imagine the sum he could touch by playing football there this time. And some have not been deprived.
An offer that outranks the salaries of Ronaldo and Benzema
According to leaked estimates, Lionel Messi would indeed have received a colossal sum playing in Saudi Arabia. Unimaginable even. According to information published by Helena Condis Edo, sports journalist for several Catalan media, no less than 500 million euros per year would have been offered in extremis by the Saudis, who tried to catch up with the footballer in the very last days before his transfer, when he was already turning to the American continent. All for a three-year commitment, or 1.5 billion euros for the 35-year-old Argentinian international.
This record sum, which represents almost 42 million euros per month and more than 1 million per day, would have been higher than those offered to Ronaldo (400 million euros, half being linked to an ambassador role) or Benzema (200 million euros). It far surpasses the one that Messi nevertheless accepted to sail to the United States: the Argentine star will be paid 50 million dollars in MLS according to RMC Sports, which corresponds to 47 million euros.
If Messi could become the highest paid athlete on the planet in Saudi Arabia, ahead of LeBron James, the 2018 world champion has therefore decided otherwise, seduced by David Beckham’s project in Miami. “The financial aspect has never been a problem, nor an obstacle in any way whatsoever”, justified the sevenfold Golden Ball a few days ago, referring above all to a choice of life for him and his family, after two complicated years in the French capital. Lionel Messi, who will have marked football throughout the continent and more specifically at FC Barcelona, will therefore leave Europe for the first time after more than 22 years.