There is a good chance that from next season, the two great football rivals of the last decade, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, will meet again on the pitch. This time not in one of the best European competitions or the Champions League. Two legendary football players can become rivals in the exotic football league of Saudi Arabia.

The decision to bring Ronaldo to Saudi football and the attempt to transfer Messi is not just a whim of some sheikhs bathing in oil dollars. They are based on a whole strategy of “soft power”, with the help of which the Saudis want to wash away the image of a completely archaic society and compete with other more fashionable Arab countries, such as Qatar or the United Arab Emirates. What the Saudis do also has a name in the special literature: “sports washing”.

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