Highlight of the 3-2 victory over Flamengo, on Tuesday, and the unprecedented classification of Al-Hilal for the final of the Club World Cup, the Argentine striker Luciano Vietto entered the sights of Brazilian clubs and can transfer to football five-time champion in the second half.
“Blog do Rafael Reis” found that, after the semifinal against the red-black team, representatives acting on behalf of national teams got in touch with the player’s businessmen to discuss the possibility of a transaction.
Al-Hilal’s number 10, Vietto scored a goal against Flamengo and had a standout performance in the game that put the current Asian champion in the decision against Real Madrid, scheduled for tomorrow (at 4 pm, Brasília time), in Rabat (Morocco) .
With that, the player’s name was cited by fans of different teams on social networks as an object of desire for this season. Apparently, the directors followed this clamor and decided to study the viability of the business.
The interest of Brazilian clubs in hiring the Argentine is also linked to the fact that his contract in Saudi Arabia is already in the final stretch. As the bond ends in June, he can even sign a pre-contract with the team he will defend in the second half of the year.
Vietto has been at Al-Hilal since 2020 and his time at the club is not so well evaluated by Arab leaders. Proof of this is that the striker was loaned for six months to Al Shabab last year.
Therefore, it is unlikely that the Saudi team will offer him a new agreement that even approaches the current financial level. And, if not to earn a salary as high as the one he receives today, the player would prefer to move to a more expressive league.
At the age of 29, the former striker for Atlético de Madrid, Sevilla and Sporting is one of the ten highest paid players in Saudi football. His annual salary is around 4 million euros, equivalent to R$ 1.9 million per month.
Even if Vietto accepts a considerable wage reduction, not many Brazilian clubs are able to afford it. This group includes Flamengo, Palmeiras, Corinthians and does not go much further.
Despite having only played for Estudiantes and Racing on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, the striker also enjoys prestige in the Mexican market and even flirted with moving to Monterrey two seasons ago.
Winner of the Asian Champions League in 2021, Al-Hilal only competes in the Club World Cup because the following year’s edition of the continental tournament has not yet ended. The AFC (Asian Football Confederation) took advantage of the opening of the 2022 Qatar Cup to adopt a “European calendar”, change the competition period and extend it until May.
Vietto’s team is the first representative of Saudi Arabia to go through the semi-finals and reach the championship title game organized by FIFA. Before, the best campaign in the country was fourth place obtained by Al Ittihad in 2005 and repeated by Al-Hilal two years in 2019 and 2021.
Real is the biggest winner of the competition, with four titles (2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018). The meringues also won three cups from the former Intercontinental Cup, which also had World Cup status despite bringing together only the champions of Europe and South America: 1960, 1998 and 2002.
Throughout history, only European and South American teams have become world champions. Only in the last nine editions of the tournament were won by representatives of the Old Continent. The last team from there to be defeated in the competition was Chelsea, beaten by Corinthians in the 2012 final.
