As the sun set over a seemingly endless expanse of open sea, Lionel Messi took a seat at the edge of a boat, stretched out a leg and posed for the photograph that would announce the beginning of his public partnership with Saudi Arabia.
The image, shared with Messi¡¯s 400 million-plus followers on Instagram on May 9, 2022, was accompanied by a dual-language caption that read, ¡°Discovering the Red Sea #VisitSaudi.¡± Hours earlier, he had been welcomed to the kingdom by Saudi Arabia¡¯s tourism minister, who had boasted on Twitter that while it was Messi¡¯s first visit to the country, ¡°it will not be the last.¡±
Messi, who is regarded perhaps as global soccer¡¯s greatest player, was starting to cash in on the new partnership: His photo-op in the Red Sea likely earned him approximately $2 million, the first step in fulfilling his agreement with the kingdom that is worth millions more.
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