The international media seems to be pathetically scraping the bottom of the news barrel for even bits and scraps that can be hyped up in some maverick manner to generate media interest as these media folks are now busy ramping up the prospect of Ronaldo and Messi – two of the fiercest competitors in the history of football – contesting a supposedly rivetting match between a Riyadh XI side and Paris Saint-Germain.
So in a nutshell Lionel Messi’s PSG will play a no-fuss, no-frills friendly against a ‘select’ Saudi side comprising the créme de la créme of players from Cristiano Ronaldo’s A- Nassr club and rivals Al-Hilal.
Seriously, without any deliberate motives of raining on anyone’s parade – so what’s the big deal?
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have indubitably enjoyed a most compelling and intensely competitive rivalry over the years. Which is why it’s highly demoralizing for the true fans of both legends to see their intense rivalry spanning over more than a decade and a half now reduced to a mere meeting in a friendly match tomorrow billed by media mongers as a super encounter of the gargantuans – when in reality it’s nothing more than just a friendly football match when all the trappings of sensationalism have been removed.
Two of the fiercest competitors the sport has ever seen both have bigger fish to fry, surely. Messi will be in the meantime busily pre-occupied with gunning for glory for PSG especially in the Champions League. On Valentine’s Day, they are up against the Bundesliga’s Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16, which is doubtless a sure-fire cracker.
Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo is probably getting accustomed to settling into his new life in Saudi Arabia. As for the upcoming friendly match, he’d probably enjoy catching up with his arch rival on the pitch again, minus the intensity of a clasico or the Champions League histrionics of past glorious encounters between the two. For both dynamos this would be nothing more than just a distraction from their real work.
For the Portuguese legend, Al-Nassr has a Saudi Pro League match on Sunday against Ettifaq, just three days after this friendly, and then they’ve got a Saudi Super Cup semifinal four days after that.