beIN MEDIA GROUP (‘beIN’), the global sports and entertainment broadcaster, and its flagship sports channel beIN SPORTS, announced securing the media rights in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Türkiye, France, and Asia Pacific to the star-studded Riyadh Season Cup, the three-team exhibition tournament set to feature Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr, and Saudi Pro League leaders Al Hilal. 

All three matches will be broadcast live in MENA on beIN SPORTS’ free to air channel in Arabic, beIN SPORTS 1 ENGLISH in English, and in Ultra HD on beIN 4K. Al Hilal prolific scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic will face Messi’s Inter Miami at tonight’s (29 January) tournament opener; Messi and Ronaldo are expected to go head-to-head on Thursday, 1 February. One week later, on 8 February, Al Hilal will then face Al-Nassr, whom they lead by seven points at the top of Saudi’s domestic league.

In MENA, beIN’s studio coverage for tonight’s opening match starts at 20.30 MECCA, with kick-off scheduled for 21.00 MECCA at the Kingdom Arena in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. As well as Messi, David Beckham-owned Inter Miami have a host of other star names, including former Barcelona trio Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba. Al Hilal meanwhile invested heavily last summer, securing the likes of Portugal’s Ruben Neves, Serbian pair Aleksander Mitrovic and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, and Yassine Bounou, the heroic Moroccan goalkeeper who shone at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.

Thursday’s face-off between Miami and Al-Nassr is being billed as “The Last Dance” and will pit the two greatest players of the modern era against each other for, possibly, the last time in their professional careers. Messi, 36, and Ronaldo, who will turn 39 four days later on 5 February, between them share 13 Ballon D’or awards. They last faced each other a year ago in the inaugural Riyadh Season Cup when Al-Nassr slipped to a 5-4 defeat to Messi’s former club Paris Saint-Germain.

Portuguese Ronaldo, who is expected to recover from a slight calf injury to lead Al-Nassr out at the Kingdom Arena, scored 54 goals in 59 games in 2023 to finish the year as the world’s top goal scorer. Al-Nassr have other star players in their squad, including the likes of Senegalese striker Sadio Mane, Spanish defender Aymeric Laporte, and Croatian midfielder Marcelo Brozovic.