Lionel Messi to Saudi Pro League door swings open as talks commence – sources

The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund has reopened discussions with Lionel Messi in recent days, aiming to bring the Argentine player to the Saudi Pro League soon.

TEAMtalk can reveal that verbal talks are currently underway. After months of negotiations in 2023, when Messi eventually chose to join Inter Miami in MLS, the Saudi side is now trying again. With Messi’s contract set to expire at the end of this year, he will be free to sign with any club starting from July 1st as a free agent.

The interest from Saudi Arabia remains strong. Their goal is to make Messi one of the faces of the league, together with Cristiano Ronaldo, who is now closer to staying at Al Nassr given that his club is willing to accept requests to strengthen the team, as we anticipated days ago.

Contacts between the parties have just resumed, and both sides will explore the options in the coming weeks. Nothing is advanced yet, but the door is open.

For now, Messi continues with Inter Miami, fully focused on his commitments in MLS and the Club World Cup with his current club, but the Saudi Investment Fund is determined to try again, this time hoping for a different outcome. Further developments are expected soon.

The possible club Messi would be placed at in the Saudi Pro League has not been discussed yet. The PIF wants to understand Messi’s intentions first.

Only when Messi opens up to a possible transfer will they move on to evaluate which of the four clubs – Al Ahli, Al Hilal, Al Ittihad or Al Nassr – could be more suitable for him. But it will be discussed later, in an eventual next stage, not yet now.

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What has Lionel Messi said about the Saudi Pro League?

After leaving European football behind when he reached the end of his time with Paris Saint-Germain, Messi had an opportunity to move to the Saudi Pro League.

Ultimately, he chose MLS instead, but he has previously shed light on how strongly he took the Saudi option into consideration.

“I was thinking a lot about going to the Saudi league,” he told TIME Magazine in December 2023, a year after winning the World Cup with Argentina in Qatar.

“I know the country and they have created a very powerful competition that can become an important league in the near future.

“As the country’s tourism ambassador, it was a destination that attracted me, especially because I’ve enjoyed everything I have visited, because of how football is growing in the country and because of the effort they are putting into creating a top competition.

“It was Saudi Arabia or MLS, and both options seemed very interesting to me.”

Messi and Ronaldo have not played in the same league as each other since 2018, when the latter left La Liga giants Real Madrid and the former remained at Barcelona.

Messi v Ronaldo – at their current clubs