Global Courant 2023-05-13 16:06:57
For weeks there have been rumors of a mega-million dollar contract for the Argentine number 10 to join that club. What did he say.
The president of the Saudi club Al-Hilal, Fahd Bin Nafel, refused to confirm the signing of an agreement with the Argentine star Lionel Messi, while fans of the team chanted the name of the still Paris SG player to demand his signing.
“Don’t ask me about Messi,” Bin Nafel responded to journalists on Friday, questioned about rumors of the Argentine captain’s signing, just after Al-Hilalde Ramón Díaz’s victory in the Copa del Rey final played in Jeddah against Al Wehda (1-1, 7-6 on penalties).
“I will not tell them anything. If something comes out of our press department, they will find out,” he insisted.
In another interview on the same pitch, while the fans chanted the name “Messi, Messi!”, Bin Nafel declared: “The group is more important to me than a player.”
“Any star who comes to our club must know that we are a great club. Our goal is to improve (the squad). If you focus on one person, you lose the group,” he said.
The Al-Hilal Club shop in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Will they be Messi’s colors next season?
The current coach of Al Hilal has been Ramón Díaz since February 2022, who already led this Riyadh-based club in a first stage, from October 2016 to February 2018.
After two disappointing seasons at Paris SG, the wealthy Saudi kingdom would have offered the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner (35 years old) an “exceptional”, “huge” golden bridge, a source in Riyadh explained to AFP last Tuesday. Close to negotiations. The figures that came out started at 400 million dollars per season but immediately climbed to 600 million, triple what Cristiano Ronaldo earns per season.
Saudi Arabia already managed to capture the spotlight at the end of last year when it managed to attract the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo to its championship with a contract estimated at 400 million euros until 2025, making the Portuguese striker the highest paid athlete in the world in 2023, according to the Forbes magazine.
Fuente: AFP