Messi's departure unleashes a battle between the Emirates

The petrodollars have served to Manchester City already PSG for conquer the Premier and Ligue 1, respectively. But what all that money from the Persian Gulf has not made has been the great obsession of its owners, the Champions. Therefore, and after dreaming for several years about this moment, both clubs have the unique opportunity to sign Leo Messi. A struggle that goes beyond rivalry between two teams to win the six Ballon d'Or, but it is about a fight between two of the richest countries: United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Both emirates, faced and with great political tensions, they have been starring for years a race for being the first of the two in achieving the Orejona. The two clubs consider Argentinian the definitive piece to their projects, that despite having nurtured them with the oil money year after year (even prompting UEFA sanctions for skip over the Financial Fair Play) has not reached them.

He Manchester City has the backing of the Arab Emirates, as its owner is he Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE and member of the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi. He is the richest man in British football, according to a magazine report FourFourTwo, in which they indicate that it has a fortune of 15,000 million pounds. In addition, the sheikh is the president of the investment fund of oil companies IPIC and the owner of City Football Group. A firm that in addition to owning the City also account in his portfolio with Melbourne City and New York City and investments in Yokohama, Montevideo City, Lommel SK, Mumbai City and Girona.

Mansour bin Zayed has not spared in expenses since its landing in Manchester in 2008. It has reached 1,924 million euros from your first star signing (Robinho, € 43M) until the last big requests of Guardiola (Rodri, € 70M, or Mahrez, 68).

He PSG is the other great club-state European and the one that has been closest to Orejona, reaching the last final. Parisians supports Qatar, but despite what everyone believes, Al Khelaïfi is only its president. Owner of PSG is the Emir of Qatar, Tamin bin Hamad Al Thani, who bought the club in 2011 through the QIA signature (Qatar Investment Authority), a sovereign fund investment, which manages and invests the profits generated by oil. The emir is a passionate about football, therefore promoted the purchase of PSG and the organization of the 2022 World Cup. One of Al Thani's objectives is to achieve the Champions League and achieve it before the Emirates. For it, the PSG has been invested 1,304 million euros in transfers, even disbursing 222 million for Neymar, the most expensive transfer in history, but which has been insufficient to win in Europe. Therefore they want leo, who has become the object of desire of two emirates and for which they maintain a pulse.