The eagerly anticipated clash between Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr is off.
As potentially the last time two of the greatest footballers would face off, it had been billed as ‘The Last Dance’ but the game has been postponed after Ronaldo failed to recover from a muscle injury in time.
Al-Nassr manager Luis Castro said: “We will not see [Messi vs Ronaldo], Ronaldo is in the final part of his recovery to join the group. We hope that in the next few days, you can start working with the team. He will be absent from the game.”
It will be a big blow for fans of the respective superstars. The pair clashed most famously in the El Clasico between Messi’s Barcelona and Ronaldo’s Real Madrid in one of the greatest eras in La Liga history.
While Inter Miami vs Al-Nassr doesn’t quite have the same appeal, any game where both men are on the same pitch will always garner plenty of attention.
Ronaldo turns 39 in February, while Messi is 37 in the summer, and with the duo on opposite sides of the world, the likelihood is that we may have already seen their ‘last dance’. The Portuguese star has said he could play into his 40s but it remains to be seen, while Messi’s contract in Miami expires in 2025.
The Argentinian added the World Cup to his roll of honour at the end of 2022 and was awarded an eighth Ballon d’Or last year to further eclipse Ronaldo’s five. He scored from the spot in Inter Miami’s 4-3 defeat to Al-Hilal on Monday, a game in which Luis Suarez also got on the scoresheet.
Al-Nassr and Ronaldo were last in action at the end of December in the Saudi Pro League, beating Al-Taawoun 4-1 to remain seven points adrift of Al-Hilal at the top of the table.
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