Piers Morgan aims DIG at Lionel Messi in Cristiano Ronaldo comparison

Piers Morgan claims Lionel Messi is ‘quitting elite football’ ahead of his proposed move to Inter Miami – and yet he will avoid the ‘scathing’ criticism that Cristiano Ronaldo faced when he headed to Saudi Arabia. 

Ronaldo forced his way out of Manchester United following a damning interview with Morgan that targeted the club and its manager Erik ten Hag.

The Portuguese star was widely derided for being a mercenary and taking a mega-money deal to join Al-Nassr, rather than continue at the highest level in Europe.

Now, with Messi, 35, walking out on French champions Paris Saint-Germain and being set to head to Major League Soccer, Morgan wants – but is not expecting – to see the same level of criticism. 

‘So, Messi quits elite football at 35, three years earlier than Ronaldo,’ he tweeted. ‘Presumably, we’ll now read/hear all the same scathing, mocking pieces by sportswriters/pundits that they wrote/said about Cristiano – right? (Spoiler alert: we won’t.)’

Lionel Messi (left) will avoid the ‘scathing’ criticism that Cristiano Ronaldo (right) faced when choosing to leave European football, claims outspoken pundit Piers Morgan

Morgan tweeted that Messi won’t face criticism for quitting ‘elite football three years earlier’

Messi, the reigning World Cup champion and Argentina captain, has reportedly decided to join Inter Miami.

According to prominent Spanish journalist Guillem Balague, Messi has made the decision to head to the South Florida-based club this summer.

That follows on reporting from French newspaper L’Equipe on Wednesday morning, that said the South Florida-based club was ‘on pole’ for Messi’s signature after the Argentine received formal offers from Saudi Arabia.

Morgan has repeatedly made it clear that he finds the double standard when discussing Messi and Ronaldo excruciating – one example being at the FIFA World Cup last winter.

The outspoken presenter ripped into the BBC for ‘fan-girling’ over Messi after he scored his 789th career goal in his 1,000th appearance in professional football.

Messi was praised by pundits Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Pablo Zabaleta and Rio Ferdinand after helping Argentina to the quarter-finals of what is almost certain to be his last World Cup, but Morgan didn’t take too kindly to the words on Twitter.

Morgan branded the praise ‘excruciatingly obsequious’ as Lineker and Co commended Messi on air.

He posted: ‘The relentless Messi fan-girling by the whole BBC punditry team is getting excruciatingly obsequious. Getting worried one of them might have an “accident” in the studio.

‘Calm yourselves, lads. He had a good game against an average side. See how he does against a good team.’

MLS has an offer involving deals with multiple other brands – including Adidas and Apple

Morgan famously has a close relationship with Ronaldo (left), who he interviewed in 2022

Ronaldo has just finished his first season in Saudi Arabia with Al-Nassr, finishing with 14 goals and two assists from 16 Saudi Pro League matches. 

There was a lot of criticism of Ronaldo chasing the money after he inked a £175million-a-year contract to move to Saudi Arabia – but Messi’s move will again bring huge financial reward. 

MLS’s offer to Messi has included much more than just money through a club contract. ‘The league has gotten very creative with all of this,’ one stakeholder told The Athletic of a potential deal to land Messi. ‘Everything is on the table.’

The deal is said to involve contributions from two of MLS’ biggest commercial partners: Apple TV, their current broadcast rights holder, and adidas, MLS’ clothing sponsor.

MLS and Apple reportedly have discussed offering Messi a share of the revenue generated by new subscribers attracted to the platform’s streaming package, MLS Season Pass, by the star’s arrival in the States. 

Apple is also working on a four-part docuseries that recounts Messi’s four World Cup appearances.

Meanwhile, the report added that adidas is offering Messi a profit-sharing agreement with the sportswear giant, which would involve the player receiving a cut of any increase in adidas’ profits resulting from his involvement in MLS.