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Lionel Messi and Inter Miami are in Saudi Arabia to continue their around-the-world preseason tour

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Inter Miami played six preseason matches last season. Most were behind closed doors with few people watching, 

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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.

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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,

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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.

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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. 

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It's basically an around-the-world, big-crowd, big-money, bright-spotlight batch of preseason games for Inter Miami,

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which instantly became a global brand when Messi announced last summer that he was joining the Major League Soccer club.

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