Lionel Messi has nothing left to prove in his career and there would be plenty for him to like about playing in Saudi Arabia, according to Steven Nzonzi.
With his time at Paris Saint-Germain seemingly coming to an end after two years, Messi has been linked with a move to Saudi Arabia, where long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo is already playing with Al-Nassr.
The World Cup winner is also being courted by former club Barcelona in LaLiga, while he has often been connected with the possibility of finishing his career in the United States.
Messi, 35, has a big decision to make and Nzonzi, who has spent two seasons in the Middle East playing with Al-Rayyan in Qatar, knows a move would make a seismic impact on the region, with its reach stretching beyond football.
With World Cup success for Argentina now secured, Nzonzi does not think Messi should feel any pressure to continue chasing the game's biggest honours, even if the prospect of a return to the "club of his heart" Barca may be appealing.
Nzonzi told Stats Perform: "If you are Messi, I think that you have done everything in football, so you can do whatever you want and be fine with your decision.
"You literally have nothing left to prove. It has been already years and years that he has had nothing left to prove – but now he just got the World Cup too.
"So just an easy decision for him, I would say. Maybe not easy, because it's between Barcelona, the club of his heart, and Saudi Arabia, it might not be so easy, I don't know.
"But in any case, it would be great for Saudi Arabia if you go there for sure. You [would] have [Cristiano Ronaldo] and Messi, the most famous and two of the best players in the world ever. It's great for the Middle East, for Saudi Arabia and for football in general.
"Of course, [with] a player like Ronaldo going into a league like Saudi Arabia, it's going to boost the league, it’s going to boost the Middle East as well, because it's the whole area that can be impacted by this."
Nzonzi, who won the Europa League during a three-year stay with Sevilla that saw him regularly do battle with Messi at Barca, acknowledges the new league would take some getting used to for the forward after playing at the top level for so long, but thinks the lifestyle has plenty to offer.
Asked about playing in the Middle East, he added: "I've been there, I've stayed there two seasons. It was good, it was challenging, because we're always trying to change.
"It is a big change when you’ve been playing at a high level for a long period of time. I was happy to live there. You know, the lifestyle is great. And the football is good, too.
"You learn in any experience, you learn. And that was the most important thing for me, to keep learning to keep helping other players if I can and keep doing my job. That's what I enjoyed the most."
Despite being unable to help PSG to what remains an elusive Champions League triumph, Messi has been productive in winning Ligue 1 twice.
This season he has 32 goal involvements (16 goals and 16 assists) in 31 top-flight matches, with Saturday's contest at home to Clermont still to come.
Ronaldo and Al- Nassr, meanwhile, sit second in the Saudi Pro League. The former Real Madrid and Manchester United star has scored 14 goals in 16 league appearances.
'I will keep fighting' - Ten Hag adamant he is the right manager for Man Utd
Erik ten Hag insists that he is the right man for the job at Manchester United despite their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Crystal Palace on Monday.
Michael Olise netted twice against a sorry United team at Selhurst Park, with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also getting on the scoresheet.
It is the first time that Palace have done the double over the Red Devils in the Premier League, as United extended their winless run on the road to five games.
There has been a lot of speculation over Ten Hag’s future following a disappointing second campaign in charge, with just one year left on his contract.
Asked if he was the right manager for United, he told Sky Sports: "Absolutely. If the right players are there and available, we have a good squad, but are missing the whole backline – we had problems.
"I will keep fighting. I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, by far – I have to take responsibility for that. But I will find energy and prepare them for Sunday’s game.
"At the end of the day, I have to do it with the players who are available. All season, we have huge [injury] problems. Many times we have sorted it out. Today we didn’t."
United have struggled with injury problems all season, with Harry Maguire and club captain Bruno Fernandes joining the lengthy list of players missing against Palace.
Ten Hag highlighted the lack of defensive options at his disposal but did not make excuses for the poor performance, adding: "It’s clear and obvious – this is underperforming. It’s not good enough. We are very disappointed in this. Our fans were behind us all the way – we should have kept fighting like the fans did.
"There are always reasons. Everyone sees our backline, we have huge problems, but at the end of the day we have to deal with it – we should have done better than we did.
"We know [how damaging it could be], but we have nine points to play, so we have to fight for the nine points."
Man Utd thrashing a 'big statement' but Palace are not surprised, says Eze
Eberechi Eze says Crystal Palace's 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United is a "big statement" but insists there should be little surprise that it happened.
Micheal Olise scored twice as Palace ran riot against the sorry Red Devils at Selhurst Park on Monday.
Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also got in on the act as Palace sealed their first league double over United.
Palace have now won four of their last five Premier League games, with Oliver Glasner having turned the tide in the past few weeks.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Eze said: "It says a lot, it's a big statement, but we're not surprised.
"We know what we're capable of, we know what we can do. The quality we've got in the dressing room is high – we don't see it as a surprise. We know what we came here to do today, it worked.
"You can see we’re creating chances, we're not worried about what's going on behind us. We're attacking, pressing, we're aggressive – we're going to continue to create chances for sure."
Also speaking to Sky Sports, Glasner said: "Congratulations to the team. I think in the first half, we didn't play as well as we could, but we were very efficient and scored very nice goals.
"At half-time, we made some adaptations, and the second half was much better. We created a lot of chances, scored some nice goals, and it's a great win.
"We know we have quality when we get our players in situations to score a goal.
"Good players, a good team spirit, but we must always stay humble. It's not so long ago we were struggling [in a relegation battle]. We are doing well, but we have a lot to improve."
This was Palace's biggest Premier League win since beating Leeds United 5-1 in April 2023, while it also marked their biggest on home soil in the competition since a 5-0 victory over Leicester City in April 2018.
Udinese 1-1 Napoli: Struggling Bianconeri grab last-gasp home draw
Napoli were held to a 1-1 draw at relegation-battling Udinese in Serie A on Monday after a stoppage-time goal by forward Isaac Success cancelled out a Victor Osimhen header.
Osimhen nodded home to give Napoli the lead in the 51st minute after Matteo Politano sent a lofted cross from the right into the middle of the box, and the Nigerian striker headed the ball in off the left post.
The Nigerian thought he doubled their advantage in the 80th minute, but his effort was ruled out for offside, before Success bundled in the leveller in stoppage time, netting from a Thomas Kristensen header.
Napoli moved up to eighth on 51 points from 35 games and are nine points behind both fifth-placed Atalanta and Roma, in sixth.
Data Debrief:
Osimhen is the third Napoli player to score in six matches in a row against a single team in Serie A in the three-points-for-a-win era, after Gonzalo Higuain against Lazio between 2013 and 2016 and Dries Mertens against Bologna between 2016 and 2019.
Despite fighting back to earn a point, Udinese have now failed to win three games under a new manager for the first time since August-September 2010 under Francesco Guidolin.
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