The sun was setting on the horizon, over an endless sea. On board a boat, Lionel Messi sat down and posed for the photo announcing the start of his partnership with Saudi Arabia.
The image, sent on May 9, 2022 to Messi’s 400 million Instagram followers, was captioned: “Discover the Red Sea
Messi, perhaps the best soccer player in the world, began to make money from the deal that day: around US$2 million for his photo op in the Red Sea. Just the first step of his contract with the Saudi kingdom, which is worth millions more.
The New York Times was able to review the contract which details what Messi needs to do to promote Saudi Arabia.
According to his agreement with the Ministry of Tourism, Messi could receive up to 22.5 million euros (32.5 million Canadian dollars) over three years. His obligations? A few commercial appearances: a few social media posts: an all-expenses-paid vacation there with his family. He is to broadcast, to share with his vast online audience, images of these trips – tagged with a hashtag endorsed by Saudi Arabia.
This contract with Messi, World Cup champion with Argentina in December, shows how this wealthy petromonarchy “buys” famous athletes to restore its image. Critics of Saudi Arabia call this strategy sportwashing: using sport and sports personalities to whitewash the country’s human rights record, its treatment of women, the assassination of the columnist Washington Post Jamal Khashoggi and other abuses committed by this dictatorship.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has invested billions in professional sports. She owns a soccer team in England and a race on the Formula 1 circuit. In boxing, she has promoted championship fights. Not to mention his recent and controversial foray into professional golf.
The kingdom has stretched hundreds of millions of dollars more to attract Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and dozens of other soccer stars to the Saudi league. Messi has just turned down such an offer, preferring to join Inter Miami in MLS. This decision does not seem to have harmed his relations with the Saudis. He even seems very motivated to stay in their good graces.
In February 2021, shortly after signing his contract and unable to attend an event, Messi issued a letter of apology to the Saudi Minister of Tourism. In this unpublished letter, Messi addresses Minister Ahmed al-Khatib as “Your Excellency” and, in flowery prose, he expresses his “deepest regrets” for his absence. Messi, then at FC Barcelona, argued that “as a sportsman” he could not avoid certain obligations: a match against Real Betis, then a Spanish Cup match.
Messi recovered later. His last visit was in May, a year after the announcement on Instagram, during a short mid-season holiday in the kingdom. As with all his previous visits, Messi is said to have received a seven-figure payment under the terms of his contract with the Saudi tourism board.
Until now, the details of Messi’s contract with the tourism agency have been a closely guarded secret. It is uncertain whether the contract reviewed by The Times is the current version of the agreement. It comes from a person with direct knowledge of the deal between Messi and the Saudis, on condition of anonymity (he is not authorized to divulge details of the deal). The document, dated January 1, 2021, was signed by Messi and his brother Rodrigo, who manages some of his affairs, but it is not signed by Saudi officials.
The terms of the document are consistent with Messi’s promotional messages on social media, as well as his promotional visits to Saudi Arabia.
The contract details Messi’s obligations and his salary for each:
Few people agreed to talk about the contract. Pablo Negre Abello, head of Messi’s commercial agreements, invoked confidentiality clauses written into all of the player’s contracts. Abello referred the Times reporter to Saudi tourism officials, who did not respond to multiple requests from the newspaper.
Rayco García Cabrera, a former soccer player who brokered the meeting between Messi’s agents and Saudi officials, including the tourism minister, said the deal was worth “a small sum” compared to the huge salaries the country pays stars like Ronaldo and Benzema. But, according to García, Messi agreed to be the spokesperson for tourism because he “believes in Saudi Arabia and the vision of Saudi Arabia”.
