SAUDI PRO LEAGUE
Why do so many soccer stars opt to play in the Saudi Pro League?
The Saudi Pro League was the major talking point last summer as a series of high profile players headed to the Gulf.
Boxing, Formula 1, golf, WWE, a Winter Games, snooker and especially football have seen Saudi Arabia invest vast sums of money in sport as it looks to present a new image to a global audience.
Last summer alone, Saudi Pro League clubs’ gross spend in the 2023 summer transfer window was US$957 million as the likes of Karim Benzema, Sadio Mané, Neymar, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and many others joined Cristiano Ronaldo to the Roshn Saudi League.
Financial incentives are high for many players looking to assure a secure their future with the game offering a short career but despite the huge investment in transfers last summer by Saudi Arabia, the value of their league has carried on with the sharp upturn and the value of their players has so far, dropped like a stone.
However, at this time last year, before beginning their quest to invest, the league was worth €311 million ($340m) and a year later it was worth €989 million ($1b), of course after investing more than €1 billion ($1.09b) in transfer fees alone.
Despite the profile of the league seeing a major upturn with the likes of Ronaldo, Benzema, Mané boosting global popularity for the competition, the first cracks are starting to appear with Jordan Henderson’s hasty exit from Ettifaq with the former Liverpool man less than complimentary in his assessment of live in Dammam and the infrastructure surrounding the game in Saudi Arabia with the England international happy to take a 75% pay cut to join Ajax.
Karim Benzema also appears unhappy at Al Ittihad and joins the likes of Firmino who is also unsettled at Al Ahli with his Spanish teammate Gabri Vega also acknowledging that he has struggled to adapt to life in Jeddah.
Saudi transfers slowing down?
Despite plenty of high profile players continually linked with a move to the Roshn Saudi League during the current winter transfer window (Ivan Rakitic being the latest with the Sevilla player linked with Al Shabab), Brazilian Renan Lodi is the only high profile global name to head to the Gulf as the defender swaps Marseille for Riyadh’s Al Hilal.
Time will tell if last summer’s exodus for many high profile player stars to the Saudi league was a one-off or a trend that will be repeated but players may look at the voices of dissatisfaction emerging and think twice of a destination from where to write the next chapters of their respective careers.