Why Messi SHOULD HAVE taken the money
With all the hype surrounding the Inter Miami deal, The Al Hilal deal has been completely forgotten. But it shouldn't
Lionel Messi turned down the most insane deal in history (in my opinion).
He was reportedly offered between 1.2 and 1.6 billion dollars over the course of 3 years by the Saudi Professional League (SPL) team, Al Hilal.
Most people were under the assumption that Messi was going to take the Al Hilal deal because his first choice, Barcelona, wasn’t in a position financially to take him back.
But on June 7, Messi shocked the entire world and announced that he’s joining Inter Miami - the team with the world record in Major League Soccer (MLS) right now.
So Inter Miami must’ve offered more money, right?
Nope.
Miami got creative.
The details aren’t finalized, but this is what the deal looks like as per insiders:
MLS had to make a salary exception for Messi, he’ll be getting paid somewhere between 125 and 150 million for 2.5 years.
A percentage of Inter Miami shirt sales
A percentage of sales from Apple MLS Season pass - international sales
The option to buy ownership of the club after he retires
Now there’s been a lot of coverage on why this is a good deal, so instead, we’ll explore why the Al Hilal deal was the better option.
An Unprecedented Deal
People will say that the Inter Miami deal is the best for Messi from an upside perspective, but that’s not really doing justice to the Al Hilal deal, after all when was the last time you heard of football players being offered a billion-dollar contract?
To put it into perspective, after Messi moved to Inter Miami, the club’s value shot up to $600 million.
But, had he taken the Al Hilal deal, he could’ve bought Inter Miami twice just on his salary alone.
That is unheard of, and that’s just one example.
With $1.2-$1.6 billion dollars cash, he could’ve bought a number of big name clubs outright.
Continuation of the Messi vs Ronaldo Era
After Ronaldo left La Liga and joined Juventus, there weren’t many matches where he played against Messi again.
Of course, they were able to face each other in the 2022 World Cup, but now that Messi will be in the United States, it's very unlikely they’ll be able to run into each other at club-level football.
Taking the Al Hilal deal would’ve meant at least another 2-3 years of the Messi vs Ronaldo rivalry, facing each other a few times each season.
From a sports perspective, it's always good to have an enemy that your fans can rally behind.
Had Messi gone to Saudi Arabia, he’d have this rivalry in Ronaldo who has been his enemy for years. And at no point in the last 19 years have people stopped debating who the better of the two is.
Having this rivalry would be beneficial for both of their brands, which obviously would’ve also benefited the SPL in general, as it would’ve helped garner a lot more attention for the league.
People would be keeping track of who’s doing well, particularly whether Messi or Ronaldo’s team is performing better, generating a lot more buzz by the virtue of both of them just playing in the same league.
SPL vs MLS
When big name players from the European leagues come to the MLS, there is usually a spike in global attention in the MLS at the very beginning (think David Beckham or Zlatan Ibrahimovic) but that interest doesn’t stay sustained. After a season or two everyone is back to focusing on the European leagues because the MLS just isn’t as competitive and doesn’t have the big brand names that the European Leagues do.
If we assume that the formula for a highly watched league is to sign big-brand name players while increasing the standard of play to make the league more competitive, then Saudi is making all the right moves.
There’s been rumors and talks of other big-name players from European clubs going to the SPL, such as Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante, Hakim Ziyech, and Kalidou Koulibaly, to name a few.
There’s also been talks of high profile European coaches being poached to the SPL.
US vs Saudi Arabia Brand Sponsorship Opportunities
A lot of people talk about the United States and the opportunity to have a number of brand sponsorships and work with other brands that are in the United States for Messi.
It is a valid point, just take a look at the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA, players that may not be franchise leading players and get super max deals can leverage the proximity to studios, big brands, and media attention to earn more money off the court than they would be able to in other markets.
But on the other hand, Saudi Arabia is currently in brand rehabilitation mode, meaning they’re trying to change their image and how they are perceived globally, a big reason being their ambitions of hosting the 2030 World Cup, along with building giant cities with hopes of transitioning the country’s oil economy to that of a tourist economy.
This transition is made evident with F1 races being held in Jeddah, the LIV Golf-PGA merger and NEOM, a new $500 billion city being built.
Messi would have had the opportunity to actually be one of the main brand ambassadors for a lot of these projects, and putting Messi on some of these projects would’ve definitely brought visitors and tourists to the country.
In fact, Messi is still a paid spokesperson for Saudi Tourism. He is reportedly paid $2 million for 10 promotional social media posts per year, and an additional $2 million to vacation in the country.
Conclusion: The Better Deal?
The Messi deal isn’t as black and white as people in the media have made it out to be and in many ways the Saudi deal looks like the better financial deal.
However, leaving aside what the better financial deal is, the Miami deal opens the door of negotiating streaming revenue to players that command a lot of attention. We’ve seen athletes negotiate ownership stakes in companies that sponsor them (Roger Federer with ON, Michael Jordan with Nike, etc.), but getting paid based on the amount of people that watch your games is truly uncharted territory.
We’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on this subject. Namely, the percentage Apple, Adidas, and MLS are willing to give and how much it actually ends up being for Messi after a year or two, and if it ends up being more or less than what he would’ve gotten with Al Hilal. This could change the business of sports forever