Saudi Pro League

Birdy

Birdy

Senior Member
Given the quite aggressive Saudi approach - which we couldn't see last winter with Ronaldo, but is now clear - I thought it's useful to keep track of what they are doing. It will be useful to update this list along the way

All transfers from Europe since last winter (transfer fee - yearly wages in Euros in brackets).
Correct me if my sources cite wrong numbers

All-Nassr
Ronaldo 0 (175m)
Ospina 0 (1.5m)
Brozovic 18m (30m)
Fofana 25m (20m)
Alex Telles 7m (10m)
Mane 40m (40m)


All-Hilal
Koulibali 23m (25m)
Ruben Nevez 55m (20m)
SMS 40m (20m)
Malcom 60m (18m)
*Mitrovic 35m (24m)
* Veratti 30m (48m)


All-Ittihad
Benzema 0 (200m)
Kante 0 (25m)
Jota 29m (20m)
Fabinho 47m (35m?)

All-Ahly
Mendy 18.5m (15m)
Firmino 0m (22m)
Mahrez 30m (25m)
Saint-Maximen 30m (12m)


All-Ettifag
Henderson 14-20m (35m)
Moussa Dembele 0 (?)


Done deals (not pending ones):
436m on transfer fees
820m on wages for the first year of the contracts alone!
 
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khaled_a_d

khaled_a_d

Senior Member
Many of the wage numbers are fake , just typical Arabian money flex.
Kante is the clear example , he has 3 or 4 year contract worth total of 100M, that is 25-33M per year not 100M. Probably the contract gets him more net money than he made in his entire career but they still needed to spice it up with 100M per year tag.
 
Birdy

Birdy

Senior Member
khaled_a_d said:
Many of the wage numbers are fake , just typical Arabian money flex.
Kante is the clear example , he has 3 or 4 year contract worth total of 100M, that is 25-33M per year not 100M. Probably the contract gets him more net money than he made in his entire career but they still needed to spice it up with 100M per year tag.
Click to expand...

That's surprising because Romano (super reliable) reported the 100m per year.
 
khaled_a_d

khaled_a_d

Senior Member
Birdy said:
That's surprising because Romano (super reliable) reported the 100m per year.
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Romano serves a purpose for someone, just like every news journalist that ever existed. That is important to remember. Journalist needs a source, so you either pay a low profile employee (doesn't work in super rich field with such variety across the globe) or you have a win win situation. You get the news but also serve a purpose. Usually that works with a club or with an agent.

Romano known to have a relationship with current Chelsea board for example, filters hos news to suit them.

As for inflating deals:

I mean if a club is paying 25M but says it is 100M, why would his agent say no? It makes him look better, it is good PR if the money is bigger, it makes headlines for Romano, for the Saudi club themselves. Everyone wins by inflating the number.

Lastly, Romano said on 7th of June it is 100M per year, on June 18th he said it 100M paid on for years.
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1670579429033013251
 
J

jamrock

Senior Member
No shot, they would pay Kante 100m euros, he's not a player that excites the fans.

25m is still crazy though , with no taxes.
 
Yannik

Yannik

Senior Member
gonna be funny seeing this implode when in a few years KSA drops the project for lack of interest.
 
T

Temptation

Well-known member
Sergej Milinkovic Savic also joined the "league".


Henderson and/or Fabinho to follow.



Even in it's heyday, the Chinese league was never close to having this much star power transfer from Europe.
 
T

Temptation

Well-known member
Yannik said:
lack of interest by the KSA, like with most of their building projects.
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Nah this won't be abandoned suddenly.


Football is a global phenomenon and way more important to their sportswashing agenda. The soft power it gives you is unbelievable.


They're looking for the 2030/2034 World Cup bid. That's a lot of years. Till then their league will have developed an effective working ecosystem and will already attract global attention and interest.

You're totally wrong on this one. I can't see how they'll lose interest in a project this effective for their own interests.
 
Yannik

Yannik

Senior Member
Temptation said:
Till then their league will have developed an effective working ecosystem and will already attract global attention and interest.

You're totally wrong on this one. I can't see how they'll lose interest in a project this effective for their own interests.
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It won't. The current squads consist of 2-3 Ronaldo's next to 8 barbers. The country lacks any football infrastructure. There is nothing coming from the bench onto the pitch, there's nothing coming from the youth centres onto the bench, there's nothing coming from the streets into the youth centres. And noone goes onto the streets cause there's nothing build to go to and it's 46 degrees outside and all public life outside climatized zones are essentially abandoned and the vast majority of the native population is morbidly obese to a point where even the US looks healthy.

The league doesn't sit on any natural fundament that can ensure self sustain, so it essentially runs on the desperate hope that washed up >30year olds and a few semi decent youngsters who are all on unreasonable salaries will want to move there to actually make up a"squad". A national league like that can't function without a nation that actually plays football. This is a serious problem, which money alone can't solve.

Of course another motivation in this is the hopes that it will at least "raise global interest".
Has it? It hasn't. Even after signing Ronaldo and whonot and Al-Nassr achieving 10 million more insta followers for a moment, the majority of the league still averages 5k attendance figures and clips of Al-Nassr games on YouTube continue to average 60k clicks. Absolutely noones watching. And those that do, just watch Ronaldo and give no fuck about league immersion at all and will leave when he does.

Effective? It's a black hole.
It barely holds together for as long as the government is interested, and even now we already see cracks when you look at for example the Henderson saga where a club that offered 700k in wages struggles to actually meet Liverpools 20m asking fee. Or when their poster club can't register new players under FIFA anymore due to outstanding debt. It's the Jeddah Tower of football.

Now contrary I wouldn't call the Chinese approach a success, but at least they realized at some point where they were going with this which is when the government taxed foreign transfers massively so that clubs stopped buying washed up boomers from Europe and reduce non-chinese players in squads to encourage all these funds to actually go into infrastructure. Idk how effective it is progressing, but at least they actually try build something with longetivity in mind and self sustain that in 40-50 years may look like a real football country.
 
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P

Porque

Senior Member
Teams will probably have 11 foreign players within 5 years or so making it a Super League without a salary cap. AFC already moved the foreign limit from 3 to 5, so they will keep a few farmers for the international tournaments.
 
khaled_a_d

khaled_a_d

Senior Member
FinBarcelonafan said:
Couldn't teams get trouble if they inflate transfer prices? Like Juventus and Barca did with the famous Arthur swap
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You are talking about official numbers, I am talking about the leaks to the press. They agree a certain number and leak a totally different one.
And there is no need to inflate numbers for them, they aren't under any FFP rules
 
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