By Amaechi Agbo

A Saudi Arabia businessman Musharraf bin Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, General Manager of the Aqar One group of companies, has paid £2.6 (₦1.5 billion) for VIP ticket to watch Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi exhibition match on Thursday.

Al-Ghamdi paid $2.6m (SR10,000,000) for a VIP ticket to watch an all-star team captained by Cristiano Ronaldo take on Lionel Messi’s PSG in Riyadh.

The exhibition game will see an all-star team made up of players from Saudi clubs sides, Al Nassr and Al Hilal take on PSG as part of the French side’s Middle East tour.

It could see Ronaldo and other players from the Saudi pro football league take on PSG stars such as Kylian Mbappe and Neymar.

PSG, owned by Qatar Sports Investments, are on a tour of the Middle East which will see the club earn a reported £8.7m

Turki Al-Sheikh launched the charity bid for a very special match ticket that grants VIP access to the stadium as well as the opportunity to meet the players, go into changing rooms and even be a part of the winning team photo.

It is the most expensive football match ticket ever bought and was part of a fundraising venture launched by Turki Al-Sheikh, the head of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority.

Al Sheikh started the bidding at €250,000 ($268,000) and has been updating Twitter followers throughout the week. The match will see an all-star Saudi Arabia league team made up of players from Al Nassr and Al Hilal take on PSG, with Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and more world stars.

A post on Twitter said: “Real estate businessman Musharraf bin Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, General Manager of the Aqar One group of companies, has so far made the highest offer on the charity ticket “Beyond Imagination” at 10 million Riyals.”

Proceeds from the sale of the ticket, known as the Beyond Imagination Ticket, will be donated to Saudi Arabia’s Ehsan charity fund. Organisers had more than 1.5m requests for the ticket within hours of it going on sale.

On Saturday the bidding reached $2.6m (SR10,000,000) with a bid from real estate businessman Musharraf bin Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, General Manager of the Aqar One group of companies and it has not been topped.

Al Sheikh confirmed that Al-Ghamdi’s bid was the winner in a Twitter post on Tuesday night deadline day for budding to end.

It means the real estate boss now has a very special match ticket that grants VIP access to the stadium as well as the opportunity to meet the players, go into changing rooms and even be a part of the winning team photo.

Full VIP Ronaldo v Messi matchday ticket benefits include:

Opportunity to meet Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, and Mbappé; Attending the opening ceremony
VIP match seats alongside Turki Al Sheikh:
Gala lunch; Exclusive entrance to both teams matchday changing rooms; trophy award access and team photo with winning side

Ronaldo v Messi matches in Saudi Arabia could become a common sight if the Argentine World Cup winner takes up the rumoured offer of a $299m a year contract to follow his old rival to the Middle East.

Ronald signed for Al Nassr shortly after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and Thursday’s highly anticipated clash with Messi will be his debut for the Saudi Arabia Pro League winners.

beIN Media Group has announced that its flagship channel, beIN Sports, has acquired the rights across all its territories (Middle East and North Africa, France, Turkey, Asia, North America, and Australasia) to broadcast the highly-anticipated Riyadh Season Cup.

The match will be played in Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd International Stadium on Thursday, January 19.