CELEBRITY
Lionel Messi may team up with Odion Ighalo in Saudi Arabia
If on-going speculations are anything to go by, Super Eagles’ former hit-man, Odion Ighalo may play in the same team with the legendary Lionel Messi at the Al-Hilal.
Speculations are rife that Lionel Messi’s father who is also the player’s agent, Jorge Messi, is in Riyadh for talks with Al-Hilal about the possibility of his son joining the Saudi club on a staggering £245m-a-year contract.
Messi’s PSG are due in Saudi Arabia for a friendly match against Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr.
Both Messi and Ronaldo have dominated the football space in the past 15 years and it appears that the rivalry may shift to Saudi Arabia, who appears are taking cue from Qatar to use football as public relations tool.
According to a report by UK’s Daily Mail, it has emerged that Al Hilal, which Ighalo plays for, are keen to bring Messi when his contract expires at PSG in June.
Like it happened to Cameroon’s captain, Vincent Aboubakar when Ronaldo was brought in by Al Nassr, it is hoped the Ighalo would not be sacrificed for Messi at Al Hilal.
Ighalo at the moment is one of the seven foreign players at Al Hilal.
“They would be willing to pay him $300m-a-year (£245m) to get a deal over the line”, according to Mundo Deportivo., a Spanish news outlet.
Nasser Al-Attiyah, a relative of the Emir of Qatar, has further fuelled speculation that he will move to the Middle East after reportedly stating: ‘Messi, his next club after his departure from Paris Saint-Germain, will be Saudi Arabia.
Al-Hilal are currently banned from adding players until the next transfer window, but they want Messi to sign now ahead of a potential move in the summer.
Messi’s father has arrived in the Saudi capital to discuss the proposed move, as reported by The New Arab
, which would see Messi renew his on-pitch rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo joined fellow Saudi side Al-Nassr last month and will receive £175m per year during his time with the club.
Should Messi accept Al-Hilal’s proposal, he will earn significantly more than Ronaldo and also get the chance to play against his great nemesis once more.
Messi and Ronaldo enjoyed a historic rivalry while competing against each other for Barcelona and Real Madrid between 2009 and 2018, when they established themselves as the two best players on the planet.
Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr appeared to have signalled the end of their rivalry, but Messi could now follow him to Saudi.
Clashes between Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal are considered Saudi’s equivalent of El Clasico, and seeing Messi and Ronaldo on opposite sides would only add extra spice to the occasion.
The legendary paid could also play against one another when PSG travel to Riyadh to take on an All-Star XI featuring players from Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal on January 19.
Former England soccer captain David Beckham and actor Gary Oldman were knighted in King Charles’ annual birthday honours list on Saturday, while sculptor Antony Gormley was made a Companion of Honour.
Beckham, 50, joined Manchester United as a trainee in 1993, going on to make almost 400 appearances for the club where he won a string of titles and cups.
He subsequently played for Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, and Inter Milan, as well as captaining his country 58 times and making 115 appearances.
His marriage to fashion designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham in 1999 cemented a celebrity status which went far beyond his sporting exploits.
Oldman, 67, started his career on the stage, where he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, before rising to prominence in film. He won the best actor Oscar for playing Winston Churchill in the 2017 drama “Darkest Hour”.
He also had roles in the “Dark Knight Trilogy” and the “Harry Potter” movie series and more recently starred in the TV spy drama “Slow Horses”.
Other famous names receiving honours included damehoods for musical theatre star Elaine Paige, novelist Pat Barker and ceramics maker Emma Bridgewater.
Roger Daltrey, lead singer of rock band the Who and a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, received a knighthood for services to charity.
More than 1,200 people received honours for their achievements, with a particular focus on those who had given their time to public service, the government said.
King Charles’ official birthday will be celebrated with the annual “Trooping the Colour” military parade in London on Saturday. His actual birthday is on November 14
-Reuters
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One of three judges in Diego Maradona’s closely scrutinized homicide trial in Argentina resigned on Tuesday amid a scandal triggered by the alleged filming of an unauthorised documentary, bringing uncertainty to the future of legal proceedings.
The high-profile trial over the death of soccer star Maradona began on March 11 in the South American country where the World Cup winner is still revered.
-Reuters
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For the third year in a row, and the fifth time overall, Cristiano Ronaldo is the world’s highest-paid athlete.
But at age 40, the Portuguese soccer superstar is reaching new highs.
Over the past 12 months, counting both his playing salary at Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr and his off-field business endeavors, Ronaldo collected an estimated $275 million before taxes and agent fees—the third-best year by an active athlete ever measured by Forbes.
On that all-time list, Ronaldo is surpassed only by boxer Floyd Mayweather, who earned $300 million in 2015 and $285 million in 2018.
And when it comes to the 2025 leaderboard, Ronaldo has a $119 million advantage over No. 2, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry.
The League of Wealthy Sportsmen
The gap is especially impressive considering that Curry’s $156 million total is also a record for his sport, beating the NBA mark of $128.2 million set last year by LeBron James.
And there are plenty of other eye-popping paydays among this year’s 10 highest-paid athletes, starting with James, who notched a personal-best $133.8 million to land at No. 6. Meanwhile, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (No. 4, $137million) and New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto (No. 7, $114 million) broke records for the NFL and MLB.
Combined, the 10 highest-paid athletes brought in $1.4 billion, up slightly from last year’s $1.38 billion and the largest total since Forbes began ranking athlete earnings in 1990.
This year is also only the second time, after 2024, that every member of the top 10 made at least $100 million.
In fact, heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk ($101 million) and golfer Jon Rahm ($100 million) reached the milestone, too, without managing to crack this list.
For the third year in a row, and the fifth time overall, Cristiano Ronaldo is the world’s highest-paid athlete.
But at age 40, the Portuguese soccer superstar is reaching new highs.
Over the past 12 months, counting both his playing salary at Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr and his off-field business endeavors, Ronaldo collected an estimated $275 million before taxes and agent fees—the third-best year by an active athlete ever measured by Forbes.
On that all-time list, Ronaldo is surpassed only by boxer Floyd Mayweather, who earned $300 million in 2015 and $285 million in 2018.
And when it comes to the 2025 leaderboard, Ronaldo has a $119 million advantage over No. 2, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry.
The gap is especially impressive considering that Curry’s $156 million total is also a record for his sport, beating the NBA mark of $128.2 million set last year by LeBron James.
And there are plenty of other eye-popping paydays among this year’s 10 highest-paid athletes, starting with James, who notched a personal-best $133.8 million to land at No. 6. Meanwhile, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (No. 4, $137million) and New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto (No. 7, $114 million) broke records for the NFL and MLB.
Combined, the 10 highest-paid athletes brought in $1.4 billion, up slightly from last year’s $1.38 billion and the largest total since Forbes began ranking athlete earnings in 1990.
This year is also only the second time, after 2024, that every member of the top 10 made at least $100 million.
In fact, heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk ($101 million) and golfer Jon Rahm ($100 million) reached the milestone, too, without managing to crack this list.
World’s Highest-Paid Athletes 2025
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