The ageing superstar being politically weaponised in two states’ soft-power plays carries cautionary lessons for the Premier League
o this is how the end comes. Not with a bang. Not with a whimper. Not with a potentially decisive Ligue 1 double header against Troyes and Ajaccio. But instead with a trail of politically weaponised, oddly touching tourist photos.staring at a falcon. Here is Lionel Messi looking confused next to a fence. Here is Lionel Messi interacting cautiously with a horse.
Messi, however, was already en route to the Gulf, there to fulfil his prearranged obligations as Saudi Arabia’s chief celebrity tourism ambassador. It was too late to return in time. On Wednesday the world’s highest-paid footballer was duly suspended for a fortnight, ruling him out of two of the remaining five Ligue 1 games before his contract expires in the summer.
Welcome to the era of the proxy war, of soft-power struggle expressed through sporting institutions. Is this healthy?
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