Messi appears to turn down Ney's penalty offer before his abysmal effort saved

PSG beat a Cristiano Ronaldo-inspired Saudi All-Stars side 5-4 on Thursday night - but it could have been more after Neymar missed a shocking penalty after appearing to ask Lionel Messi if he wanted to take it.

The Brazilian spurned the opportunity to put his side 3-1 up in the exhibition match, after Ronaldo and Messi had both already got on the scoresheet, with a terrible penalty that was easily saved by Mohamed Al-Owais.

Neymar seemed to offer Messi the chance to take the spot kick and double his tally after winning the kick, but the Argentine generously turned it down, before allowing Kylian Mbappe to take another later in the game.

With PSG already 2-1 up having lead from the sixth minute thanks to Messi, the Argentine world champion drew a foul in the box while showing off his infamous footwork.

Team-mate Neymar can then be seen gesturing towards the penalty spot and speaking to Messi, who then seems to reply in the negative and turn away.

Neymar then took the resulting kick from 12 yards, but his woeful effort following a stuttering run up was comfortably saved by Al-Owais.

The Brazilian talisman had come under fire after not taking a penalty in the shootout that saw his side bow out of the World Cup in the quarter-finals to Croatia.

He had picked up an injury earlier in the competition that ruled him out of two group games, with Tite keen to protect his star player.

And fans were quick to comment on the strange chain of events, with Messi largely coming in for praise after his selflessness despite the crowd appearing to chant his name as the kick was awarded.

One fan wrote: 'Neymar told Messi to play the penalty kick but Messi said no, this is why he is my goat. Neymar missed,' followed by numerous laughing faces.

Another claimed Messi's actions show that he is not a 'glory hunter', adding: 'The crowd was chanting Messi's name when the penalty was awarded. Neymar asks Messi if he wants to take it, but Messi refuses.

'Goes to show how Messi has never been a glory hunter. But Neymar took an awful pen.'

A third fan compared Messi's attitude to Ronaldo celebrating wildly on scoring a spot kick of his own, saying: 'Neymar wins a penalty offers it to Messi who refuses to take it, Messi wins a penalty and gives to Mbappe, then there is my idol Penaldo who does a siuu celebration after scoring penalty in a friendly match,' followed by several laughing emojis.

A fourth pointed to the fact that Messi turned the penalty down as evidence to underline his growing indifference: 'Neymar really asked Messi to take the penalty and he refused. Man doesn't care about anything anymore,' accompanied with a crying emoji.

Whereas a fifth spectator called for Neymar to be handed a little more slack, after only recently coming back from an injury: 'Neymar missed one penalty and y’all magically forget he’s been playing amazing first half and assisted Messi WHILE injured…'