Al Nassr manager Rudi Garcia may have made a bit of an unwise choice by joking that he wanted the Saudi Arabian club to sign Lionel Messi instead of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo’s career at the highest level in Europe now looks to be over after his contract was terminated by Manchester United, with the veteran Portugal international now agreeing a big move to Saudi giants Al Nassr.
It’s a major statement from them, but Garcia joked that he was expecting Paris Saint-Germain and Argentina forward Messi instead, as reported by the Daily Express.
While he was clearly being tongue in cheek, this seems a slightly dangerous joke for Garcia to be making, given Ronaldo and Messi’s long-standing rivalry as they’ve battled it out for GOAT status for over a decade now.
The pair have dominated the Ballon d’Or pretty much every year, whilst scoring frankly ludicrous numbers of goals at a scarcely believable level of consistency, though Messi’s recent World Cup triumph has probably now settled the debate in his favour.
With that in mind, it’s particularly awkward timing for Garcia to be making jokes about wanting to sign Messi over Ronaldo.