Inter Miami has officially confirmed that it will participate in the Riyadh Season Cup, the tournament announced by the organizers on November 21. Accordingly, co-owner David Beckham’s team will play two matches, against Al Hilal on January 29 and Al Nassr. on February 1, 2024. These two teams lead the Saudi Pro League 2023 and Cristiano Ronaldo is the top scorer with 16 goals. Unfortunately, Neymar is currently injured and cannot join Al Hilal to face Messi.

That means that on the first days of the new year 2024, we will again witness the confrontation between two of the greatest players in world football history. “These matches are important tests for Inter Miami – this will benefit us going into the new season. We are very happy that the home team has the opportunity to face quality teams like Al Hilal and Al Nassr,” said Inter Miami sporting director Chris Henderson.

Messi and Ronaldo have faced each other 35 times at both club and national team levels with a record of 16 victories belonging to King Leo, 10 victories belonging to CR7 and the two sides were tied the remaining 9 times. Messi has 21 goals and 12 assists in those matches; Ronaldo has 20 goals and 1 assist.

Messi promoted tourism in Saudi Arabia last May, leading to an internal suspension from his then-parent team, PSG, for voluntarily making the trip to the oil country. He also played in this year’s Riyadh Season Cup when PSG was a guest.

Saudi Arabia has sought to elevate its top league by signing a host of European football stars amid allegations of sports money laundering. However, they were unable to lure Messi to the oil kingdom when he decided to leave PSG in June to go to MLS to play for Inter Miami.

Inter Miami will have 4 pre-season matches: one against the El Salvador national team on January 19, one against a team of top players from Hong Kong on February 4 along with the two matches mentioned above. above. MLS is expected to start at the end of February 2024.