Lionel Messi and Inter Miami have a two-game tour of Saudi Arabia this week, the first match on Monday against Al-Hilal and the second match coming Thursday against Al Nassr, one where Messi may share the pitch again with longtime rival and fellow great Cristiano Ronaldo, assuming the Portugal star has recovered enough from a calf injury to play.

Courtesy of Inter Miami

The club already has played two exhibitions this year, one in El Salvador, one at Dallas' Cotton Bowl, and has matches in Hong Kong and Japan still to come after the Saudi swing is complete. It's basically an around-the-world, big-crowd, big-money, bright-spotlight batch of preseason games for Inter Miami, which instantly became a global brand when Messi announced last summer that he was joining the Major League Soccer club.

Inter Miami is in Saudi Arabia because of Messi, plain and simple. There is no bigger name in the game than the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner and captain of reigning World Cup champion Argentina, and Messi — who had an offer to play in Saudi Arabia, which he turned down to join MLS and come to Inter Miami — is a Saudi ambassador to help promote tourism.

He was even suspended once by one of his former clubs, Paris Saint-Germain. for making an unauthorized trip to the country. But Inter Miami not only understands the value of having Messi, it welcomed this massive preseason stretch in advance of an MLS season that starts Feb. 21.

The trip itself speaks to how different everything for Inter Miami has become. The club faced Florida International University with no fans allowed in one of its preseason matches last season; this season, it's facing Ronaldo with the soccer world watching for a result that won't even count. The team had less than 1 million followers on Instagram; it has 16 million now, many of them no doubt driven there by the half-a-billion followers Messi has on that site.

Please subscribe, like the video and share wherever you can!

Help support the channel from only £0.99p a month!!
Get special loyalty badges next to your name in the comments and live chat! You'll also get team badge emojis from your favourite team to use in live chat and premieres!! Click 'Join' below the video for more info or visit = https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiVg6vRhuyjsWgHkDNOig6A/join

**DO NOT copy and re-upload any part of this video anywhere otherwise copyright strikes will be made! You do not have my permission to use this footage**

To make sure you don't miss any of my videos
on this and my other channels please:

Subscribe here!: http://bit.ly/BeanymanSportsSub

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BeanymanSports
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@BeanymanSports
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BeanymanSports
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeanymanSports

For business enquiries, sponsorships, and ads, please contact beanymansportsmarketing@gmail.com

#messi #ronaldo #lionelmessi