Maybe this is going to be the last face-to-face fight between the two legends.
A team from Saudi Arabia will face PSG in Riyadh on January 19. Al Hilal and Al Nasr players will play in the team. Cristiano Ronaldo will play opposite Lionel Messi. The 'Messi-Ronaldo' duel created in Spanish club football will be seen once again.
The interest among football fans to watch this match is now high. A source told ESPN that more than two million people applied online for tickets to the match between PSG and the Saudi team.
Former Real Madrid and Manchester United star Ronaldo Al Nasr joined this month. However, due to an incident in the Premier League, he has not yet entered the field due to a ban of two matches. The ban ends tomorrow with the Al Nasr-Al Shabaab match.
Despite the ban delaying the fielding, the Portuguese star is making his debut with a 'big match'. Qatari-owned PSG will play an exhibition match at the King Fahd Stadium next Thursday. The audience capacity of the stadium located in Riyadh is 68 thousand.
Sources told ESPN that all tickets were sold out within minutes of going on sale. At one stage, more than 2 million people were waiting to buy tickets online.
Messi-Ronaldo last met in December 2020. Juventus' Ronaldo scored two goals against Messi's Barca at the Camp Nou in the Champions League. Juventus won the match 3-0.
Before that, they faced each other in the jersey of Barcelona and Real Madrid for 9 consecutive seasons. He also played in the jersey of Argentina and Portugal. In all, Messi-Ronaldo have played as opponents 36 times so far. Of which Messi won 16 times, Ronaldo 11 times. Face-to-face shows Messi's 22 goals, Ronaldo's 21.
However, next week's match will not be considered competitive. Even scoring goals will not add to a professional career.
Ronaldo will play his first official match for Al Nasr on January 22 against Al Itifaq.