With Messi in MLS and Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia, is a battle for star players emerging?
Since the transformative signing of David Beckham in 2007, MLS has landed some big stars.
Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Didier Drogba, Nani and many more have come since Beckham, but 2023 brought the real chance to land a different stratosphere of megastar. After years of flirting, it was time to truly chase Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi — two of the greatest soccer players in the history of the game and two of the most famous people on the planet.
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The hope, and perhaps even the outright expectation, was Ronaldo and Messi would continue their long-running rivalry in MLS.
The Saudi Pro league disrupted that dream when Ronaldo spurned MLS to sign with Al-Nassr in the winter, despite serious talks with Sporting Kansas City. As more big names were then swayed by the Saudis, and reports of incomprehensible sums of money lined up for Messi, it seemed Saudi Arabia would get the continuation of Messi vs. Ronaldo, not MLS.
Messi turned down the Saudi money for the Miami lifestyle ( …and also a lot of money ) to choose Inter Miami, but he’s in the minority now.
Karim Benzema, Roberto Firmino and N’Golo Kante went to Saudi Arabia, as well as in-prime talents like Ruben Neves and Jota. Firmino has a connection with Lutz Pfannenstiel, sporting director of MLS expansion side St. Louis City, and there was at least a distant possibility he could come to MLS if he turned down European overtures. Instead, Firmino signed with Al-Alhi.
Ronaldo joined Al-Nassr in the winter where he had 14 goals and two assists in 16 games in his first season. In January, sports intelligence agency Twenty First Group ranked the SPL as the 59th-best domestic league in the world; at the same point in time, MLS
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