Messi brings three football legends with him to Al-Hilal

Stuart Telford

• 11 May 2023 10:06 BST
• 3 min read

Al-Hilal have already offered Lionel Messi €400 million a season to move to Saudi Arabia, and now they are set to sign three of his best friends in football to sweeten the deal.

Messi is out of contract at Paris Saint-Germain this summer, and that fact alone, this late in the day, makes it clear he is considering his future even if his father and agent Jorge says that no decision has yet been made.

Barcelona have been very public about their desire to see Messi return to Camp Nou, and have reportedly offered the Argentina World Cup winner €25m a year plus a percentage of the shirt sales he generates to return to his spiritual home.

READ: Guardiola confident Messi will rejoin Barcelona this summer

But the Blaugrana need to reduce their debt by €200m to take part in La Liga next season, and their pursuit of Messi could amount to a face-saving exercise for both parties.

Al-Hilal have offered Messi stunning terms in the meantime. The reported €400m a season is twice what Cristiano Ronaldo earns at Al-Nassr, and would make Messi the highest-paid footballer of all time. But they aren't stopping at that.

Getting the band back together

"To convince Leo Messi to join Al-Hilal, the Saudi club has made an offer to Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets and is going to make one to Marco Verratti!" Tweeted France Televisions' Mohamed Bouhafsi. "Unheard of in football."

READ: The THREE stars Barcelona have to sell to afford Messi

Barcelona are desperate to cash in on players given their financial circumstances, and would readily accept an offer for Alba, who has fallen behind Alejandro Balde as first-choice left-back anyway.

Busquets will leave on a free this summer, but having his €37m a year salary off the books will be welcome, even if the hole he leaves in midfield will not.

Verratti might be the hardest to acquire. PSG's midfield metronome is under contract until 2026 having first moved to the Parc des Princes as a 19-year-old in 2012. He is valued at €36.1m by FootballTransfers' in-house algorithm.