The owners of clubs in Saudi Arabia want to turn the local championship into a “super league”, which UEFA once wanted to do, but because of the terrible scandal, the idea was scrapped. A similar moment is played out even in the series “Ted Lasso”, where a billionaire from Ghana wanted to gather the top clubs of Europe in one championship, but the owner of Richmond smartly reined in the boyish habits of the African. (sorry for the spoiler)
Many star players have already moved to this Arab country, whose careers are nearing completion, and finally they want to earn money for a comfortable future for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, or buy a brand new sports car for their car collection, as the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo likes to do. It was he who “launched” this trend of moving to Saudi Arabia at the end of 2022. He even predicted earlier that many top football players would follow him in a year. The forecast slightly did not come true, only six months have passed, and the owners of clubs from Saudi Arabia are attracting the most star players with fabulous salaries.
Brazilian forward Neymar, who plays for the French club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), will now become another solid rival for Ronaldo. The 31-year-old footballer signed a contract with the Saudi team Al-Hilal. The portal L’Equipe reported this.
The agreement runs until 2025. Al-Hilal acquired Neymar for 80 million euros (at today’s exchange rate, that’s almost 9 billion rubles). Taking into account some bonuses that are not yet known, the amount could reach 100 million euros. Previously, another Brazilian Malcolm, who played from St. Petersburg Zenit, moved to this team.
Neymar will play in the Saudi Arabian football championship this season. The athlete should soon arrive in Riyadh to undergo a medical examination before completing the transfer.
Let us remember that Neymar became a PSG player back in 2017. Then the forward moved from the Spanish Barcelona for 222 million euros. The Brazilian became the champion of France as part of his club for 5 seasons in a row. During this time, he played 173 matches for the Parisians, scored 118 goals and made 77 assists. It seems that PSG’s investment has paid off in full.
They have already moved to Saudi Arabia to play: Karim Benzema at Al-Ittihad, where he will earn 200 million euros in two years. Ngolo Kante became his teammate. The Frenchman previously played for Chelsea in London. Ruben Neves moved to Al-Hilal, and Kalidou Koulibaly went there too. Moussa Dembele has moved from Lyon to Al-Ittifaq. And this is only a small part of the transfers. The transfer of another PSG star, Kylian Mbappe, to Al-Hilal is still in doubt. According to rumors, the Frenchman is offered a salary of 700 million euros per season, but Mbappe does not really want to leave France.