Lionel Messi set to follow stars from Pele to Beckham who traded top leagues for backwaters
- Potential stint in Saudi Arabia would put Messi on the same path as Cristiano Ronaldo, but such late-career moves have long held appeal for world’s finest
- United States, Japan and Qatar are among those who have previously lured top names for a lucrative swansong
Argentine football superstar Lionel Messi’s move to spend the final years of his stellar career in Saudi Arabia, according to a source close to the negotiations, will come as a crushing blow to Barcelona fans who dreamed of a return to the club that nurtured him.
In fact, 35-year-old Messi will be following a well-trodden path of the greats of the Beautiful Game by taking a lucrative payday in football’s backwaters.
Here are four examples:
Pele to New York Cosmos
It took the persuasive powers of then US secretary of state Henry Kissinger to lure the man who vies for the title of greatest ever with Messi and Diego Maradona to the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1975.
“They want to make soccer big in the United States,” Pele told CNN in 2011. “That was the reason [I went]. I started my mission.”
Aged 34 at the time, he stirred huge public interest and crowd numbers soared. Averaging below 10,000 a match before his arrival, Cosmos attendances surged to over 40,000. Pele took to the New York nightlife but did not neglect his duties on the pitch, inspiring the team to a Football Bowl title in 1977.
