Inter Miami played six preseason matches last season. Most were behind closed doors with few people watching,
all took place in Florida and the biggest news probably came when some fans prematurely set off fireworks and got ejected from the exhibition-season opener.
The soccer icon and Inter Miami have a two-game tour of Saudi Arabia this week, the first match on Monday against Al-Hilal and the second match coming Thursday against Al Nassr — one where Messi may,
share the pitch again with longtime rival and fellow great Cristiano Ronaldo, assuming the Portugal star has recovered enough from a calf injury to play.
The club already has played two exhibitions this year — one in El Salvador, one at Dallas' Cotton Bowl — and has matches in Hong Kong and Japan still to come after the Saudi swing is complete.
It's basically an around-the-world, big-crowd, big-money, bright-spotlight batch of preseason games for Inter Miami,
which instantly became a global brand when Messi announced last summer that he was joining the Major League Soccer club.