The European transfer market is constantly shaking with deals to Saudi Arabia.
A trend that is happening strongly in Europe at the moment is that famous players switch to Saudi Arabia to play. Recently, Kalidou Koulibaly, a midfielder once valued at £ 100 million, has signed for Al Hilal after reaching an agreement to leave Chelsea.
More importantly, the Senegalese player just arrived at Stamford Bridge last summer. Some other names can be mentioned Ruben Neves, N’Golo Kante or the upcoming Hakim Ziyech, Edouard Mendy, …
Koulibaly is the latest player to join the Saudi Pro League
The summer transfer window of 2023 is still long, so this list is definitely not over, so European football is expected to be very “turbulent” in the near future.
So where does the “Saudi Arabia whirlwind” come from? According to the Athletic, Saudi Arabia hopes to host the world’s top 25 tournaments in a variety of sports by 2030 with a plan called “Saudi Vision” – “Saudi Arabia Vision” and football is a part of it. .
The plan is very simple, it is to splash money and invite the best to compete. In fact, no one knows the details of the contract between the athlete and the Saudi Arabian clubs, but the message sent is very clear. “Go to Saudi to play for a few years, you won’t have to worry about money for the rest of your life.”
Saudi Arabia needed a smooth start and they did it with Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese superstar is rumored to receive an income of up to 200 million euros per year at Al Nassr. CR7 did not play too successfully in the Saudi Pro League last season, but that is enough to prove that the offer from Saudi Arabia is not a fantasy.
Esquire newspaper called Ronaldo a “head” of the current movement. CR7’s reputation is big enough to bring old teammates like Benzema, Sergio Ramos here and so on, a new trend appears. Europe must feel lucky because Messi chose to go to Inter Miami instead of Al Hilal. If there are enough two contemporary superstars, the Saudi Pro League will be ten thousand times more attractive than the current one.
Ronaldo opened the door and dragged Benzema and then Sergio Ramos to Saudi Arabia.
The issue that many people are interested in right now is whether the “Saudi whirlwind” will last long? If the financial potential of Saudi Arabia’s clubs has been strong for a long time, why did they wait until now to unleash it? Previously, clubs in the Saudi Pro League mostly hired second-class stars out of time in Europe such as Aboubakar, Talisca, Ighalo, Banega…
Many sources believe that “Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund” also known as Public Investment Fund (PIF) is behind it all. They will be the main payers for the invited superstar during this time. This means that if this fund stops working, the “Saudi whirlwind” will also disappear.
When that will happen, however, remains a difficult question to answer. But one obvious problem is that this type of “burning money” is not necessarily effective because the difference between the common ground and the stars is quite large. Let’s wait and see how Saudi Arabia will solve this problem in the near future.
