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It was a mixed bag for Saudi in the foreign press over the weekend, with coverage ranging from everything sports to normalization. The two-state solution remains a main talking point, while Cristiano Ronaldo is making headlines again for being the highest paid athlete in the world.
SPORTS #1- It is too early to speak on Saudi hosting the 2036 Olympic Summer Games, with the Kingdom’s Olympic Committee only focused now on good results in the upcoming Olympic games in Paris in July and August, the committee’s Executive Director of Marketing and Communication Abdulaziz Albaqous told Reuters. The Saudi delegation is focused on securing medals in Paris especially in the equestrian jumping competition as Saudi equestrian marks its return to the games for the first time since the London Olympics in 2012, Albaqous said. "Of course, the Kingdom always aspires to host any important international event but it is too early to talk about the Olympics," he said.
SPORTS #2- Al Nassr’s Ronaldo led Forbes list of the highest paid athletes in the world after raking in an estimated USD 260 mn in total earnings, Reuters reported. Golf world number five Jon Rahm came in second at USD 218 mn after joining Saudi-backed LIV Golf last year. The list also includes Al Hilal’s Neymar who came in seventh place at USD 108 mn.
SPORTS #3- Oleksandr Usyk “turned the fight on a dime with a brutal ninth-round assault” that stunned Tyson Fury, sending Fury to the canvas and giving Usyk the crown as the sport’s “first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999” here in Riyadh, CBS News reports.
Demands for a two-state solution are emerging as the “single biggest barrier” to normalization between Saudi and Israel, former CIA director David Petraeus told CNBC. “A solid path, a solid commitment to a two-state solution from Israel” is the biggest obstacles for the talks, he said. Officials have repeatedly reiterated that the only way to peace is a credible and irreversible path to establish an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. Meanwhile, the New York Times is examining a resistance by Israel to join in the efforts.
