This Friday begins the 2023-2024 season of the Saudi Professional League, which has shaken up the transfer market by hiring a group of high-profile figures to strengthen its competition, protected by the power of petrodollars. The four main clubs in the kingdom have spent nearly half a billion dollars.
The 2023-2024 international football season highlights it. Three of the five major European championships start this Friday: the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga and the French Ligue 1. But they are not the only ones. A competition as nascent as it is powerful, economically speaking, also has its starting point. Saudi Arabia It does not have a footballing tradition or great figures widespread abroad. But he has something else: the power of money.
The kingdom has had an explosive notoriety in football, for the sake of growth. Of course, the project goes hand in hand with the big means at its disposal (petrodollars) to basically sign figures and have them play in their championship. The Saudi Professional League, the Middle Eastern nation’s top-flight tournament, kicks off this Friday. which attracted unusual attention due to the constellation of stars that landed.
The first to open the door was Cristiano Ronaldo. After leaving Manchester United, with an obvious short circuit with coach Erik ten Hag, the Portuguese left as a free agent in full participation in the World Cup. This dismissal was brief because on December 30 his millionaire transfer to Al Nassr was confirmed, which meant a real revolution. The link is for two and a half seasons, which implies a figure that reaches 200 million euros (220 million dollars) per season for CR7, which makes him the highest paid footballer in the world.
With the presence of the Portuguese in Saudi territory and Lionel Messi in the United States’ MLS, a debate has arisen over which league is better. Cristiano delivered his position: “I think the Saudi league is much better than MLS and over time it will be very strong. In three years it would be the fifth best league in the world.”
CR7’s Al Nassr brought in none other than Senegalese Sadio Mané, whose experience at Bayern Munich didn’t work out, and the Croatian Marcelo Brozovic, last vice-champion of the Champions League with Inter. And as a sort of nod to Ronaldo, the club signed Portuguese coach Luis Castro, who was at Brasileirao leaders Botafogo.
To explain the large expenditure on players that the Saudi teams have made, one thing must be kept in mind. The kingdom transformed its four main clubs (Al Nassr, Al Ittihad, Al Hilal and Al Ahli) into companies. The Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is owned by the Saudi state, owns 75% of each facility. Therefore, they have strong financial backing to sign important players.
If there’s a team that threw the house out the window, it’s Al Hilal, who have two of the 20 most expensive signings in the entire market 23-24, in competition with Europeans. He set the record for the highest signing in the Saudi league. He invested 60 million euros in the Brazilian Malcom, former Russian Zenit, also passed by Barcelona. He also signed Portuguese Rúben Neves for 55 million euros and Serbian Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, ex-Lazio, for 40 million. In all, Al Hilal paid 178 million euros ($195 million) in constitutions according to Transfermarkt, being the fifth highest spending club for the new season. He is surpassed by four Premiership teams (Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United).
When it comes to numbers, the one that rocked the league was Al Ittihad , with the arrival of Karim Benzema. The French striker left Real Madrid and embarked on a new experience at 35, with a millionaire salary of around 200 million euros per year. He is accompanied by N’Golo Kanté, ex-Chelsea, and Fabinho, ex-Liverpool.
For his part, he al ahli He was not left out either and went straight to England to bring players out. He took the Brazilian Roberto Firmino, the Senegalese Edouard Mendy and the Algerian Riyad Mahrez. His last signing was Franck Kessié, who was at Barcelona. This team will be responsible for opening the championship this Friday, at 2:00 p.m. in Chile, against Al Hazem. For context, the country’s big four teams have collectively spent 453 million euros (nearly $500 million).
Ettifaq hit the mark with the hiring of Steven Gerrard as their new manager. The Liverpool emblem took away the last captain of the Reds, midfielder Jordan Henderson. The Chilean presence in the Saudi championship is ensured by Enzo Roco, who came to Al Tai, after leaving Elche.
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Source: Latercera
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
