Now the most expensive footballer in the world will play in the Saudi Pro League from Saturday. Brazilian Neymar is the desert league’s most expensive and surprising summer signing to date. But the 31-year-old Brazilian had no choice but to succumb to the enticing reputation of the millions after six years at Paris St. Germain. France’s champions no longer planned with him, his attempts to continue playing in Germany or England failed. The Neymar package was too expensive even for the prominent Premier League clubs. In 2017, Paris paid 222 million to FC Barcelona for Neymar. The Champions League could not be won with him, nor later with him, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe. Now the French got 90 million for him from Al Hilal Riyadh. This makes it the most expensive sale in club history. Neymar will earn 200 million at the club in the Saudi Arabian capital over the next two years. At Paris he got 35 per season. At Al Hilal he meets other top-class players. Al Hilal has already indicated for the Sergei Milinkovic-Savic (formerly Lazio), the legionnaire’s son in the last GAK champion team, the Portuguese Ruben Neves (Wolverhampton), Chelsea defender Kalidou Koulibaly and the Brazilian Malcolm (St. Petersburg). Replace 178 million, now 90 are added. The salaries for the five new purchases together amount to 174 million per season. Al Hilal’s coach is the 69-year-old Portuguese Jorge Jesus (previously Fenerbahce Istanbul, Benfica Lisbon).
Neymar can certainly be seen as the culmination of the Saudi onslaught on European football. The previously largely ignored league has now spent more than 550 million euros on transfers. But he is not the top earner in the desert. This is 38-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo, who arrived on a free transfer from Manchester United. He will earn a whopping 500 million at Al Nassr by 2025. 35-year-old Karim Benzema, ex-Real Madrid goalscorer who also didn’t cost a fee, raked in 300 million at Al-Ittihad Jeddah in three years. For comparison: Sadio Mane, ex-Bayern star with a Salzburg past, has to be satisfied with 40 million as Ronaldo’s teammate. Mane cost 30 million transfer fee. Last Saturday, Ronaldo and Mane won their first title thanks to Ronaldo’s two goals to make it 2-1 in the Champions Cup match against Al-Hilal, Neymar’s new club who also tried to land Messi in July. But he chose the Major Soccer League and Miami.
Neymar’s and Ronaldo’s clubs are among the four clubs receiving major support from the sovereign wealth fund. Among them is Al Ahli, the new club of the last Salzburg master coach Matthias Jaissle. US broadcaster CBS claims the government will provide the 18 clubs in the Pro League with 19.7 billion for transfers by 2030.
2023-08-15 21:16:47
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