Messi, Ronaldo to meet in friendly between PSG, Saudi select

PARIS: Lionel Messi and Paris St-Germain will play a friendly against a select side made up of players from Cristiano Ronaldo’s new club Al Nassr and their Saudi rivals Al Hilal in Riyadh on Jan 19, the French champions announced on Monday.

Qatar-owned PSG will travel to Doha on Jan 17 before moving on to the Saudi capital for the match at the King Fahd Stadium which will see Messi and Ronaldo renew their rivalry.

Messi returned to training with PSG last week after being given a fortnight off following Argentina’s World Cup triumph in Qatar in December.

Meanwhile Ronaldo, who will turn 38 in February, recently joined Al Nassr after agreeing a contract that runs until 2025 and is reportedly worth more than 200 million euros ($214m).The trip comes despite the Ligue 1 leaders having a French Cup tie scheduled for the weekend of Jan 21 and 22 against lower-league opponents yet to be determined.