A £90million All-Star match that would have pitted Cristiano Ronaldo against long-time rival Lionel Messi almost took place at Wembley in 2017, it has been revealed.
Ronaldo and Messi have both been at the pinnacle of football throughout their illustrious careers and are widely acknowledged as the two finest players of their generation. They regularly came up against each other during their respective spells at Real Madrid and Barcelona - but they came close to locking horns away from La Liga.
A new report from The Sun has revealed that Robert Bonnier, a former multi-millionaire dot-com investor, approached the representatives of the high-profile duo back in 2014 with the idea of staging a dream mega game at a neutral venue.
It is understood that Bonnier's vision - which is outlined in a new book: Messi vs Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two GOATs, and the Era That Remade the World’s Game - would have seen the two icons hand-pick teams with a budget of almost £90m on offer to cover match fees and bonuses, with Wembley pencilled in to stage the glitzy game.
Both Ronaldo and Messi were believed to be interested in the proposal, which would have become a biennial event after the maiden match, which was set to take place in 2017. Bonnier also wanted bands, a laser show and a big boxing match to cap the bonanza event, which would have involved some of the biggest names in the Premier League.
Unfortunately, there were a number of obstacles that would lead to Bonnier's idea failing to come to fruition; including Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, who it is believed would have demanded around £21m for any of Los Blancos stars to be involved.
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Although the plan hatched by Bonnier was discarded, new Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly recently thrust the idea of an MLS-like All-Star game into the public domain with comments he made shortly after acquiring the London club.
Boehly's suggestion was not warmly received, though, and was shot down by the likes of Jamie Carragher and Thierry Henry pretty much instantly.
Speaking at the Salt business conference in the United States last month, Boehly, who also owners the LA Dodgers, said: “Ultimately, I hope the Premier League takes a little bit of a lesson out of the American sports teams and really start to think about why don’t we do a tournament with the bottom four teams.
“People are talking about why don’t we have more money for the pyramid? MLB did their all star game this year. They made $200m from a Monday and a Tuesday, you could do a North vs South all-star game from the Premier League to fund the pyramid very easily.”
