CELEBRITY
MANCHESTER CITY DRAW 10-YEAR PLAN FOR LIONEL MESSI
Although the initial plan to get Lionel Messi into their fold for the current season may have collapsed, Manchester City are unrelenting in the desire to get the Argentine legend.
According to Spanish publication, AS, the ‘citizen’ team is preparing an offer in which, in addition to being a player, it would allow Messi to be an ambassador and retire from another club in its group.
The report has it that when Manchester City considers signing Messi, it does not limit itself to thinking about the two, three, four or five years of football that remain in the elite.
Signing Messi has a business plan even deeper than the sports one. To convince him from January, when he will be able to negotiate freely with any other club, and beyond the performance that he could give again under Pep Guardiola, the English club is already preparing a dossier with the plan they have for him for the next ten years.
At 33 years old, and after unsuccessfully forcing his departure from Barcelona last summer, it seems that the offer for him will not only be from Manchester City as such, but from the entire City Football Group (CFG), the conglomerate that brings together several entities sports throughout the world.
Signing Leo Messi goes far beyond sports, and in the group they already throw numbers about the possible impact that his arrival would have at the advertising level and the revaluation of the brand.
On the other side of the scale, the extraordinary salary that he charges and that can pose a problem for a team threatened by the control of financial fair play .
If Messi ends up landing at City, and once his performance at the highest level is exhausted, he would have the opportunity to join any team in the group that is to his liking.
From the United States, where they have New York City FC, to Australia, with Melbourne City, passing, of course, through Asia, where they have Yokohama F Marinos.
Once he decides to definitely hang up his boots, and if he finally accepts the offer, the plan is for Messi to act as the group’s ambassador around the world, Manchester City taking advantage of his figure to establish himself once and for all as a full-fledged club of the football elite.
Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first footballer to reach billionaire status, according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which has valued the Portugal great’s net worth at an estimated $1.4 billion.
The 40-year-old striker’s financial ascent comes after he signed a new contract with Saudi side Al-Nassr in June reportedly worth more than $400 million.
Bloomberg said that Ronaldo earned more than $550 million in salary between 2002 and 2023, supplemented by a decade-long Nike deal worth nearly $18 million annually, and lucrative endorsements with Armani, Castrol and others that added more than $175 million to his fortune.
Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr from Manchester United in 2023 had already made him the highest-paid player in football history, with an annual salary of 177 million pounds ($237.52 million), plus bonuses and a reported 15% share in his Saudi Arabia club.
Argentina and Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi has earned more than $600 million in pre-tax salary during his career.
Ronaldo’s billionaire status places him among a rare group of athletes that includes basketball greats Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and LeBron James, golfer Tiger Woods and tennis player Roger Federer.
Ronaldo suggested he is not considering retirement any time soon.
“I still have a passion for this,” he said at the Portugal Football Globes gala on Tuesday. “My family says it’s time to quit and they ask me why I want to score 1000 goals if I’ve already scored 900-something. But I don’t think that way inside.
“I’m still producing good things, I’m helping my club and the national team. Why not continue? I am sure that when I finish I will leave full because I gave everything of myself. I know I don’t have many years left to play, but the few I have left, I have to enjoy them to the fullest.”
-Reuters
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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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