Her effort Saudi Arabia approaching Western standards and dominating the world is likely to cost her an astronomical sum. It is reported that the kingdom is ready to pay the Argentine footballer. Lionel Messi $400 million a year while he’s in the west of his career. While this is a huge sum even by football standards, this is just the latest step in a series of moves by the Saudi rulers who are investing billions in sports, the arts and music.

Saudi Arabia hopes spending will be fueled by its existing revenue as the world’s largest exporter of crude oilexcite and strengthen his rising generation tourist industry. On the other hand, critics say that these efforts are aimed at showing a different image of the country, the lack of freedom of speech and human rights.

“This is a complete reorientation of the kingdom,” she comments. Christine Smith Dewan, senior fellow at the Persian Arabic Institute in Washington. “They want to convince people that this is a welcoming place, not a threatening place.”

In any case, the exorbitant amounts that it spends do not allow the country to remain unnoticed by the world political and business elite. The economy of the kingdom was one of the fastest growing G20 last year, helped by the highest oil prices in about a decade, and is now the seventh largest sovereign wealth fund in the world with sports assets on its shopping list.

At the end of 2022, Portuguese football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo signed a contract with Al-Nasr Football Club worth $200 million a year. Just over a year ago, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund led a consortium that bought English Premier League club Newcastle United for more than $373 million. Saudi Arabia is considering a joint bid to host it 2030 FIFA World Cupafter seeing the recent success of the tournament in neighboring Qatar. The kingdom wants tourism to account for 10% of its gross domestic product by 2030, by which time it hopes to attract 100 million visitors a year. In 2022, the kingdom received about 16 million people, including tourists, businessmen who came to visit relatives living in the country, and Muslims from abroad heading to Mecca for the pilgrimage.

To achieve its goal, Saudi Arabia goes beyond professional sports. From an Andy Warhol exhibition to electronic music concerts in the desert to celebrity chef restaurants in Riyadh, a lot goes into building an entertainment and leisure industry from scratch.