After Cristiano Ronaldo made his move from Manchester United to Al-Nassr in January 2023, the summer saw a number of high-profile players follow the Portuguese superstar from top European leagues to Saudi Arabia. The total of $957 million (around €874m, £754m), which the clubs from the Middle-East country spent to make their competitions more interesting to a wider public, exceeded that of four out of Europe’s ’big five’, with only the English Premier League splashing out more.
Among the many debates the exodus sparked, one that arguably feels the most significant is whether the trend will continue in the windows to come.
It’s worth pointing out that there were some, like Real Madrid star Luka Modric, Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint-Germain, or Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, who showed no desire to leave their current employers for Saudi clubs.
Modric’s case has probably turned out to have been the most interesting, given that the Croatian veteran has lost his role of a regular starter in Carlo Ancelotti’s team. It poses the question of whether Modric now regrets his decision, particularly given the recent reports stating that the Spanish giants will not be offering him a new contract at the end of the season. And with the fact that he turns 39 next September in mind, it remains to be seen if the Saudi interest holds by the summer.
It’s certainly a different story with Salah, and a very recent Sky Sports interview with Saudi Pro League director of football Michael Emenalo confirmed the interest in the Egyptian winger hasn’t gone away, nor is it likely to in the near future. However, he also said no talks would be initiated from the Saudi side and insisted that Salah’s status as a key player for a club like Liverpool will be respected, as well as his obvious happiness in playing at Anfield.
“If Mo Salah is available, has an interest to come and everything is aligned, I would be incredibly delighted,” Emanelo concluded.
Naturally, there are other factors to consider as well, especially from Liverpool’s point of view. Come next summer, Salah will have turned 32, and they will be aware they cannot continue relying on his vast quality to act as their main attacking threat forever. At his best, he is certainly unplayable, he has shown that many times since joining the club in 2017, but with the passing of time, it’s only reasonable to assume his best will be gradually drifting away over the course of the next few years.
Also, another important fact to bear in mind is that Salah enters the final year of his contract with Liverpool at the end of the season, leaving the Merseysiders at a three-way fork in the road: do they offer him a new, extremely lucrative deal in a bid to have him retire at the club, do they make the best of the entire duration of his current deal and let him leave for free in 2025, or do they open their ears for offers in the summer of 2024? That’s the question they must ponder with great care, one with no easy answer.
But while Salah may be considered an exception, given his status as a top star of Arabian descent, there have been suggestions that the Saudi Pro League will need to slow down with their spending on transfers for a while. The reason given is their commitment over broadcasting and commercial deals over the next 18 months, but there is no deeper explanation as to what those commitments are and how exactly they affect the Saudi spending.
While speaking of Salah, Emanelo casually dropped the name of another Premier League star into the conversation – Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne.
“Mo Salah, like [Lionel] Messi, [Karim] Benzema, [Cristiano] Ronaldo and the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, these are players that when there is a sense of availability for them, we are willing to listen,“ he said.
Considered widely as one of the best attacking midfielders on the planet, the Belgium international has only just returned to training after missing a large chunk of the season so far with a hamstring injury. Therefore, his name may have faded a little from flashy media headlines for the time being, but there can be very little doubt about his comeback playing a huge role in stabilizing what appears to be a faltering league campaign for Pep Guardiola’s team.
Like Salah, De Bruyne is about to enter the final year of contract at his current club. Having already turned 32 and won almost everything there is to win in a Manchester City shirt, he might find it easier to move on to the next stage of his career.
As for younger top stars in the game, it’s still difficult to imagine them giving up on the challenges that European football brings. Mbappe, whose contract with PSG expires at the end of the season, has been heavily linked with Real Madrid, and with no Champions League medal around his neck as of yet, he is far more likely to choose the Santiago Bernabeu as his destination should he leave the French capital.
Erling Haaland, though he has a Champions League medal already, will likely feel the same way. At the age of just 22, the holder of the Premier League record for most goals scored in a single campaign surely feels there’s a lot more for him to achieve, and if Real don’t sign Mbappe and shift their focus onto the Norwegian striker instead and there is any chance of City agreeing to sell, it will be much harder for him to refuse something like that than a move to one of the Saudi clubs.
For the time being, European football appears safe from the prospect of their younger stars leaving for Saudi Arabia. Only the older ones, who have possibly started feeling the bite of age keenly, are likely to consider offers to move to the Middle East, or maybe those who might be feeling they underachieved in Europe somewhat. Ruben Neves, who left Wolverhampton Wanderers to join Al-Hilal earlier this year, is a good example of the latter.
Some have pointed to the failures of the Chinese Super League with similar projects a long time ago as an example of why the Saudi clubs should eventually go the same way.
But as Sky Sports journalist Kaveh Solhekol explained back in June, this is a very different situation. Much more money has been invested in Saudi Arabia than it was in China back then, and their successful bid to host the 2030 World Cup is more than a strong indicator that they’re here to stay.
Their lucrative offers will continue to tempt players for years to come, even if they do reduce their spending in the next window or two.
Is the Saudi Pro League another Chinese Super League? 💭
Kaveh Solhekol explains why he doesn’t think so… 🇸🇦 pic.twitter.com/9lovWFtZ17
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) June 25, 2023
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