This may have been the highest-profile sports event in the history of the UAE.

No, really.

Perhaps the most famous soccer team in the world, Real Madrid, led by one of the two most famous players in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo, against an Italian club, AC Milan, that has won more European championshps (seven) than anyone except Real (10).

It was only a friendly match, with lots of guys playing for both teams … but it was Real Madrid and AC Milan, with the latter winning 4-2, before an overflow crowd at a rugby ground in Dubai — which does not have a big football stadium.

Soccer fans the world over knew this game was going to happen and would be likely to look at a story about what happened.

Tens of millions of people know about Real’s 22-match winning streak. (And this loss doesn’t end it, because it was not an event recognized by Fifa.)

We have big events in the UAE, but they tend to be internally big. Not internationally big.

What else is in the running?

The first of the two Fifa Club World Cups held here, in 2009, where the final pitted Barcelona near/at its zenith and Estudiantes of Argentina.

Great game, with Estudiantes taking the lead in the 37th minute and holding it until Pedro scored in the 89th minute, with Lionel Messi (the other of the “two greatest players in the world”) then scoring the winner in the 110th minute.

The thing about that game, though, is that everyone assumed the European champions of Messi, Ibrahimovic, Henry and Xavi would easily defeat Estudiantes (of Juan Veron and a bunch of guys unknown outside of South America), and the Club World Cup was even less recognized in 2009 than it is now.

In retrospect, it was important. Barcelona won its record sixth championship in one calendar year. But the anticipation would not have been as big as it was for Real and Milan.

Anything else?

The 1996 Asian Cup final, in Abu Dhabi, when Saudi Arabia defeated the UAE in a shootout. Huge here, and it would have gotten some attention across Asia, anyway.

English champions Liverpool played in Dubai twice in the late 1980s, against Scottish champions Celtic in what was called the (unofficial) “British championship” — which came during the time of England clubs being banned from European competition. (The Heysel disaster.) Interest in world football would have been significant, for those.

But I think Real and Milan wins.

The UAE lost its mind a little over this one. Even people who don’t care about soccer were paying attention because everyone knows Cristiano Ronaldo (who had a goal, by the way) and Real and Milan, too.

Even the poor organization of the game, which led to extraordinary delays getting to the stadium, and perhaps 2,000 ticket holders being shut out because the venue was packed (all of which got some attention in The National) would not have curbed global interest because world soccer was interested in how the match turned out, not how the locals experienced it.

So, yes, I’m declaring this the biggest sports event to happen in the UAE.

And it didn’t count for anything except lots and lots of people asking: “Who won?”