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A special ticket to a soccer friendly pitting a Saudi all-star side captained by Cristiano Ronaldo against Lionel Messi’s Paris Saint-Germain sold for $2.6 million here Tuesday at a charity auction.
“Congratulations, my brother Musharraf Al-Ghamdi. Ten million riyals for charity and a charity platform. And your winning a ticket beyond imagination. Prepare yourself. Our program will start tomorrow,” Turki al-Sheikh, an adviser to the Royal Court and head of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, said on Twitter.
The money will go to the Ehsan charitable campaign.
The “ticket beyond imagination” includes access to the dressing rooms post-match and opportunities to meet Ronaldo, Messi and other stars.
Five-time Ballon d’Or Ronaldo and the Argentine great, who has won the award seven times, last faced each other on the pitch in 2020.
The Portuguese striker recently signed with Saudi club Al-Nassr after a messy split with Manchester United. He will lead an 11 comprising players from Al-Nassr and another top club in the kingdom, Al-Hilal.
Besides World Cup-winner Messi, the PSG lineup for Thursday’s match in Riyadh is likely to include Kylian Mbappe, who had a hat trick for France in the final, and Achraf Hakimi, part of the Morocco squad that made history as the first African or Arab team to reach the semifinals.
