Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mané and N’Golo Kanté start the 2023-2024 Saudi Arabian championship on Friday August 11. A string of stars from Europe have been attracted to the Saudi Pro League this summer.
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Just after the World Cup in Qatar in winter, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo hit the headlines by signing an XXL contract with Al-Nassr last January. The Portuguese striker joined the Saudi club for two years and for an annual salary of 200 million euros, the highest ever offered to a footballer. Since then, other prestigious names have been added to the Saudi championship, the new Eldorado of football.
After a summer of record transfers, the launch of the new season on Friday August 11 should arouse curiosity. We will no longer see the Senegalese Sadio Mané on the German lawns but on the grounds of Saudi Arabia. His compatriot Kalidou Koulibaly left England for Al-Hilal. The 32-year-old defender, who arrived at Chelsea last summer, would have joined the Riyadh club for 23 million euros.
” Saudi Arabia has insane means »
Several clubs have therefore attracted stars of world football this summer, from former Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema to Brazilian midfielder Fabinho from Liverpool. Ivorian international Seko Fofana has joined Cristiano Ronaldo at Al-Nassr. The 28-year-old midfielder has left RC Lens as the northern French club prepare to return to the Champions League. The Ivorian Franck Kessié, 26, who played for FC Barcelona, has just responded favorably to the call of the sirens of Saudi Arabia. Last month, Al-Hilal even offered 300 million euros to Paris Saint-Germain to sign Kilian Mbappé, but the French striker refused to meet with the leaders to discuss a possible transfer.
French striker Bafétimbi Gomis, who knows the country well having played there between 2018 and 2022 with Al-Hilal, recently indicated in the columns of The Team that ” Saudi Arabia has insane means “but is” a real football country “. “He demonstrated this with his victory over Argentina at the World Cup. I think this success weighed in accelerating the process. They want to invest more to gain visibility and are smart about their development. They also bring in great coaches and technical directors. Their ambition is also to build teams capable of competing in the future FIFA Club World Cup. he says. For Bafétimbi Gomis, we can no longer speak of an “exotic” Championship. Moreover, the Saudi Football League has signed a broadcasting agreement with the Canal+ group for French territory.
Modernize the Saudi economy and reduce its dependence on oil
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said the Saudi league had “completely changed the market and expects other players to follow suit, with the 18 teams entered potentially having eight foreigners each.
Just five years after opening its borders to non-Muslim tourists and allowing women to drive, Saudi Arabia is trying to open up its conservative and long-closed society to foreigners. And sport is a strategic weapon.
The world’s largest oil exporter has spent hundreds of millions of euros on the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo, the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Jeddah or the lucrative LIV Series golf circuit, for example. These initiatives are part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s grand plans to modernize the Saudi economy and reduce its dependence on oil.
But Saudi football will have to comply with international rules to continue to grow and become essential. Last June, Fifa imposed a transfer ban on the Al-Nassr club, due to the non-payment of compensation due to English club Leicester after the transfer of Nigerian Ahmed Musa.