Messi signs for America’s worst team, Ronaldo joined Saudi Arabia’s best

Carlo Garganese

7 Jun 2023 18:41 BST
3 min read

Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Saudi Pro League — © ProShots

The end of an era.

The 2023-24 season will be the first in 21 years since neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi will be playing in Europe.

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That is after Messi on Wednesday completed his free transfer move to Inter Miami.

Messi will officially become an Inter Miami player when his contract at PSG runs out at the end of the month.

The Argentine legend rejected a return to Barcelona and a lucrative transfer to Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia in order to make the switch to Miami.

Ronaldo, of course, is currently playing his football in Saudi Arabia already.

Cristiano moved to Al-Nassr in January after his contract at Manchester United was rescinded last November before the World Cup.

One interesting quirk about these two transfers is the status of the two teams they joined upon making the move.

Messi is joining officially the worst team in his league as Inter Miami are currency bottom of the 2023 MLS Eastern Conference.

They are fifteenth out of fifteenth with just 15 points from 16 games. They have won five and lost a staggering 11 matches, scoring 15 goals and conceding 21.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, joined the best-ranked Saudi team upon making the move to Al-Nassr.

© ProShots - Ronaldo has starred at Al Hilal

Al-Nassr were top of the Saudi Pro League when Ronaldo arrived back in January.

However, Ronaldo was unable to keep them top of the table until the end of the season as they were overtaken by Al-Ittihad - the team who Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante have signed for.

Al-Ittihad finished five points above Al-Nassr when the league season ended.

This has unsurprisingly led to Messi and Ronaldo fans to continue their never-ending arguments over which player is greater - with Leo supporters saying that their hero took the difficult and challenging option unlike their nemesis.