Our reporter Zhao Xiaosong
In the early hours of yesterday, Beijing time, the Ligue 1 Paris Saint-Germain team played a friendly match with the Saudi Riyadh All-Stars at the King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh.
Messi and Ronaldo, two of the most popular stars in the past ten years, reunited on the field. Messi scored a goal for "Paris", and Ronaldo scored two goals in his debut in Saudi Arabia.
During the competition, the "Peerless Twins" hugged and shook hands many times, expressing respect to each other.
In the semi-finals of the 2007-2008 UEFA Champions League, the 23-year-old Premier League Manchester United player Cristiano Ronaldo and the 21-year-old La Liga Barcelona player Messi played against each other for the first time.
In the summer of 2009, Ronaldo joined Real Madrid. Since then, the "Peerless Twins" have staged peak duels in La Liga many times.
In the summer of 2018, Ronaldo left La Liga and switched to Serie A Juventus, and then he could only meet Messi in the European arena.
The last "Melo Showdown" was a Champions League group match in December 2020. Ronaldo scored two penalties and helped Juventus beat Barcelona 3-0.
After more than two years, the two stars had no chance to meet again.
During this period, Messi left Barcelona, which had played for more than 20 years, set sail again in "Great Paris", and led the Argentina team to win the World Cup in Qatar held at the end of last year; "Infighting" went away from the Saudi League, and the ups and downs of being reduced from the main force to the substitute in the World Cup in Qatar.
According to media statistics, Messi and Ronaldo have played against each other 36 times before, and Messi's team leads with 16 wins, 9 draws and 11 losses; Messi scored 22 goals in 36 games, and Ronaldo scored 21 goals .
Today, both of them have entered the end of their careers, one is playing in Europe and the other is in Asia.
For this reason, this friendly match is likely to be the last meeting of the 35-year-old Messi and the 37-year-old Ronaldo in their careers.
Messi received a pass from Neymar in the third minute to help the team take the lead; after that, Ronaldo first scored a penalty kick, and then scored a supplementary shot to break the net in the scuffle in front of the goal. Saudi debut.
In the 61st and 62nd minutes of the game, Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi were replaced successively. The fans on the scene gave them long applause.
Outside the arena, the interaction of "Melo" has attracted much attention: before entering the arena, the two of them smiled and greeted in the player channel and hugged cordially; the two also interacted many times during the game.
After the game, Ronaldo posted a number of photos on his personal social media account, one of which was him chatting with Messi on the field. He wrote: "I am very happy to return to the field and score goals. I am very happy to see some old players. friend."
("Beijing Daily", page 7, January 21, 2023)