What additional dates has Inter Miami added to their international travels?

The Match-Up In the Desert for Inter Miami

While heading to Japan, Hong Kong and El Salvador is exciting, the icing on the cake for Inter Miami fans is their trek to Saudi Arabia.

On January 29, the Herons will take on Al-Hilal which recently went on a European signing spree — along with other clubs in the Saudi Pro League.

Al-Hilal picked up Neymar, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Kalidou Koulibali and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic to name a few.

Presently, Al-Hilal sit atop the Saudi Pro League, 10 points ahead of Inter Miami’s next opponent in the kingdom… Al-Nassr.

Most notably, Al-Nassr signed Portuguese legend Cristiano Ronaldo along with former Liverpool star Sadio Mane and Inter Milam midfielder Marcelo Brozovic.

The storyline here will be a match-up between Messi and Ronaldo, arguably two of the best players this generation.

In head-to-head competition, Messi has won 16 matches to Ronaldo’s 11. But Ronaldo has the most recent victory when he scored twice from the penalty spot to lead Juventus to a 3-0 win over Barcelona in the Champions League group stage.

They did have one match more recent, a 5-4 friendly between PSG and Al-Nassr in January 2023.

Their first head-to-head came in 2008 when Messi’s Barcelona drew Ronaldo’s Manchester United in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals. Ronaldo got the better of Messi in the second leg with a 1-0 win at Old Trafford to advance to the finals.

Since that meeting, the pair have won 13 Ballon d’Or trophies, 9 Champions League crowns and have scored more than 200 goals between them.

Messi has the edge in goals scored with 22 to Ronaldo’s 21. Messi also has 11 assists to Ronaldo’s 1 in their head-to-head matches.

This gives Inter Miami a full slate of preseason matches before the kick-off of the Major League Soccer season sometime in February.