Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku has spoken warmly about the idea of playing in the Saudi Pro League. Last month, the 31-year-old striker told Belgian publication HLN: “The level there will only rise, to a much higher level than many people think. More and more footballers will tend to play there.”
Lukaku’s Belgium team-mate Kevin De Bruyne, the 33-year-old Manchester City midfielder, spoke about it too. “Saudi? At my age, you have to be open to everything. If I play there for two years, I will be able to earn an incredible amount of money. Before that, I had to play football for 15 years.”
Big stars are interested in moving to the Gulf state and it’s viewed as the right next step for some. But last year’s talent grab — 97 players were signed in all — won’t be replicated this year. Saudi Arabia opened its transfer window without significant fanfare this week (July 18), and a more considered overall approach to recruitment is likely until it closes on September 2, largely in line with European leagues.
For the 2023-24 season, the four clubs in the 18-team division controlled by the nation’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) — Karim Benzema’s Al Ittihad, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr, Neymar’s current champions Al Hilal and Riyad Mahrez’s Al Ahli — spent over £700million ($908m at the current exchange rate) combined. But those holding the purse strings are keeping a more watchful eye this year.
Lukaku has spoken about moving to Saudi (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
“Overall, the budget for this year will be bigger than last year, as it includes fulfilling all standing contracts from the 2023-24 season and the additional new signings,” a league spokesperson told The Athletic. “All transfers will be strategic to fill gaps and enhance overall quality.”
The Saudi Pro League (SPL) announced three “key priorities” for the new season, which kicks off next month, after meetings with all 18 clubs to discuss targets and “squad mapping”. They also took advice from leagues around the world aiming for better practice, to improve transparency and efficiency.
Splurging cash unnecessarily wasn’t one of the recommendations.
Instead, there’s an unashamed commitment to a centralised approach to transfers, whereby everything has to go to the people at the top for approval, but there are some solid principles.
Talent — 25 per cent of which is foreign — was signed on two- or three-year deals. While life in Saudi wasn’t for some — England midfielder Jordan Henderson, for example, cut his Al Ettifaq deal short and joined Ajax in the Netherlands, having first been criticised due to Saudi Arabia’s human rights record — the league wants to “support existing contracts”.
In other words, they have the players now and retaining them is necessary, rather than going on another trolley dash across Europe.
They say they’ll do that by “supporting clubs to ensure the success of their players by providing necessary resources”.
It’s a subject Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool icon and former England captain who has been Al Ettifaq’s manager for the past year, talked about in an early conversation with the Saudi sports minister Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Saud. “When we met, he gave me information that I didn’t get from any other official (about the structure and set-up of clubs),” Turki Al Saud said in a recent interview with Saudi podcast Thmanyah.
The premise is that if you build top-tier facilities they (players) will not only come but also stay.
“We will continue until we reach one of the best leagues in the world, based on His Highness’ (Mohammed bin Salman, PIF chairman and Saudi’s crown prince) ambition and support,” he said.
Gerrard has made it clear to higher-ups in Saudi that top-quality facilities are key to attracting, and retaining, players (Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)
Agent John Viola has worked in the Saudi Arabian market for over a decade.
“In the quick changes they are making, I’m a real advocate for it,” he tells The Athletic. “I can see the enthusiasm of all the people involved. You can feel it within the clubs that they are heading in the right direction.”
While 14 players from last season’s SPL featured at the European Championship for their respective nations — including Aymeric Laporte for eventual winners Spain — as Henderson’s swift return to Europe proves, it’s not for everyone. Former Newcastle winger Allan Saint-Maximin is the latest of last summer’s imports to decide to leave, albeit only on loan to join Jose Mourinho at Fenerbahce in Turkey.
The next priority in this transfer window is that strategic approach to acquisitions, which includes a commitment to “secure top talent” to “address clubs’ technical gaps”. Rather than hoarding big names who might not fit together as a team, they want the jigsaw to click into place.
Sustainability completes the trio of pillars. Yes, “players are signed for technical needs” and “supported for success” but above all they need to be “fairly valued”, according to the same league spokesperson.
This summer, the SPL is big on budgets. It may sound like a contradiction, considering the amount of money being devoted to building a star-studded league, but officials openly speak about it.
It’s a theme that’s been mentioned by several agents too, who’ve spoken to The Athletic anonymously to protect relationships. Many say they have been made to wait patiently while Saudi clubs are told how much they will have to spend. But the league points to several early deals that have been done as proof that many SPL sides can negotiate without hindrance.
One deal that broke down despite being in the offing for a while was Wojciech Szczesny’s proposed move from Juventus in Italy to Al Nassr. Goalkeeper Szczesny reached an agreement in principle with the Riyadh side on a two-year contract worth in the region of £16million per year before playing for Poland in the Euros last month. However the clubs failed to come to terms on a fee, and Al Nassr signed another goalkeeper, Bento from Brazil’s Athletico Paranaense, instead two days into the window.
A move for Szczesny collapsed (Ronny Hartmann/AFP via Getty Images)
Sports minister Turki Al Saud claims some transfer fees and financial packages highlighted by the media included “astronomical amounts” that “were not correct”. He says checks and balances are in place to underpin the SPL’s transfer strategy and that “all clubs know how much they have” for the current window.
“Signings of players need to be agreed with (the club’s) CEO, technical director and manager,” he said. “Then you must come to us — clubs fill in a form and send it to us — and we must agree for you to go and negotiate with a player.”
One source The Athletic spoke to was aware of a version of this process occurring for a manager they work closely with.
“In Saudi, things work differently than in any other country,” they said. “The owner and sports director decide the players and the coach is not involved until things are almost closed. They then talk with the coach about the potential new player to see if the coach is on board.”
The source outlined two examples of potential signings of high-profile international players that got a long way down the line before the manager said he wasn’t keen, so the deals fell down.
There will be plenty of new sporting directors, CEOs and managers — including Al Ittihad’s Laurent Blanc, formerly of France and Paris Saint-Germain, and ex-Nottingham Forest and Cardiff City boss Sabri Lamouchi at Al Riyadh — putting their views across in this transfer window, which is likely to stimulate movement in and out.
“Some of the very best football executives in the world are now in place at our clubs to build a robust structure that allows clubs to grow and bring value to the football ecosystem and its stakeholders,” said the league spokesperson.
Laurent Blanc has just taken over at Saudi club Al Ittihad (Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images)
Al Nassr appointed Fernando Hierro (Spain manager at the 2018 World Cup) as sporting director and Ramon Planes (formerly sporting director at Barcelona) has joined Al Ittihad in the same position; ex-Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay is doing that job at Al Ahli with Lee Congerton (previously with Sunderland and Scotland’s Celtic) as their sporting director; while James Bisgrove has swapped the other half of Scottish football’s big two, Rangers, for a role as CEO at newly promoted Al Qadsiah.
Second-division champions last season, Al Qadsiah are expected to significantly upgrade their squad this summer. Rather than under PIF guidance like Al Ittihad, Al Nassr, Al Hilal and Al Ahli, they are owned by the national oil company, Saudi Aramco.
Although a free signing, Nacho Fernandez is among their high-profile arrivals, fresh off winning the Euros with Spain, which followed a sixth Champions League title in 13 years playing for Real Madrid. Former Arsenal and Chelsea striker Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang, surplus to requirements amid Roberto De Zerbi’s revolution at France’s Marseille, has joined too. Forward Julian Quinones also arrived in the opening 48 hours of the window from Mexico’s Club America for around £11.5million.
“It’s getting better and better,” Aubameyang said after joining Al Qadsiah. “You can see, in the last years, a lot of improvements and I think it’s getting more competitive — and obviously, we’re here to bring the level higher.”
Al Ittihad are another club to drop an eight-figure fee on one player with Morocco international midfielder Houssem Aouar’s reported £10million move from Roma.
Sports minister Turki Al Saud says lessons have been learned from last year’s experience, especially in terms of ensuring that players go to the right places and that the tail isn’t wagging the dog in the process.
“When the player comes, he tells you that he wants to play to the biggest audience and in continental tournaments,” he said. “(But you don’t) want to bring players who are not compatible with the club’s requirements.”
Some targets — including Liverpool’s prolific goalscorer Mohamed Salah — weren’t achievable, too. “He has a contract, so we can’t negotiate with him — only with Liverpool, who were asked if they would like to sell him,” explained Turki Al Saud. “They said, ‘No’. They have no desire to do that.”
Egypt international Salah has a year left on his contract at Anfield and will turn 33 just before it is due to expire. It’s unclear whether a similar request will be made this summer as Liverpool start their post-Jurgen Klopp era with new head coach Arne Slot.
A player like Salah would still be of interest but his age might count against him (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
While Salah would still qualify as a globally influential star to add to the SPL armoury, his age works against him. The league has already pushed to lower the average age of signings from 29 to 27 and has outlined that it “aims to further reduce this average in the upcoming season”.
The poster boy of the league may still be Ronaldo — who turns 40 in February — but the focus is on the future and nurturing young talent rather than laying on pipes and slippers in a retirement league.
New rules for the 2024-25 season — established by the SPL and backed by the Saudi Football Federation — increase the focus on signing players under the age of 21 to “boost investment in young talent”, says the league spokesperson.
Also, clubs can now have 10 foreign players in squads — up from eight — but the additional two have to have been born after 2003. Only eight of the 10 can take part in any game.
Squads have also been trimmed from 30 players to 25 to reduce overly-deep benches, and the country’s under-19s league has been adjusted to an under-18s one, to provide “an earlier entry point” according to the league spokesperson. To accommodate Saudi players being released by the top-tier sides, the second division has reduced its foreigner cap from seven to five.
“Like any leading global league, we want to see the best homegrown players alongside existing and new global talent — (this is) all part of our ambitious transformation,” the SPL spokesperson said. “Our goal is to build on the signings of last summer, (but considering the priorities) clubs will only sign players for spots that are vacant and based on the squad’s needs.”
Agent Viola says there is work being done away from the top tier. “You can make change happen quickly with money,” he says. “They’ve already spent a lot of money on grassroots across the country and that is itself will help the future of the game.
“The scouts are now looking at younger players that they can develop. One scout was looking for four or five players for the academy set-up rather than first team.”
Structural changes to the league are coupled with shifting financial sands.
The Saudi nation is diversifying away from oil production — its mainstay for decades — and working towards its Vision 2030 plan with a list of giga-projects.
One example is Neom, a £1.1billion project spread over 10,200 square miles, which includes a controversial 110-mile-long (177km) smart city, The Line, and has an aim of accommodating nine million people. Neom last year took over now second-division side Al Suqoor and has renamed them Neom Sports Club, while PIF’s giga-project Diriyah Gate runs Al Diriyah in the third tier.
Ideally, the SPL wants to start generating income rather than simply being a drain on financial resources required elsewhere. Other sports, in particular boxing and tennis, are being used to push the narrative of a more open, socially accepting Saudi Arabia.
The league’s commercial arm is open about the need to grow its profile both locally and internationally by “finding the right strategic partners to enhance the experience for fans whilst building an operationally robust and profitable league for our stakeholders”.
Giving opportunities to the high-earning athletes who come to play in the SPL to buy into teams when they retire is also a possibility, much like David Beckham’s MLS transition from player to expansion franchise co-owner recently with Inter Miami — something which was written into his LA Galaxy contract when he was there between 2007 to 2012.
Beckham had an agreement for an MLS franchise written into his playing contract (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
“The ministry is encouraging and seeking to privatise clubs,” the league spokesperson told The Athletic. “But this is being done at ministry level and goes beyond the SPL to all levels of football.”
After those first four clubs were privatised, six more are now up for grabs in phase two of the operation: Al Kholood, Al Okhdood and Al Orobah of the SPL, Al Zulfi in the second division, Al Ansar in the third and Al Nahda in the fourth. It’s a bid, backed by the state, to accelerate the growth of the Saudi sports industry, “by inviting business sector involvement within clubs”.
Viola believes the foundations are strong: “Lots of people who have no experience of being there may think it will fall down just like other leagues but I’ve seen the backbone of the work they are doing, and I’m confident that it’s not too much, too quick. They’ve moved on to looking at sustainable models.”
It’s especially important with Saudi Arabia wanting to showcase itself before hosting the men’s World Cup in 2034. Just as its neighbour Qatar aimed to do when staging the same tournament two years ago, despite questions continuing about the respective nations’ human-rights records.
More fans are pivotal as clubs try to convince players to make a big step. Saudi Arabia has a long footballing history where 80 per cent of the population play or watch the sport, but there is a long way to go before it can compete when it comes to bums on seats. The average attendance in the SPL last season was just over 8,000 — propped up by the big four sides, who saw crowds of 17,000 to 24,000.
The Saudi Pro League is a work in progress. This transfer window — the league hopes — will be another step towards proof of concept.
(Top photos: Ronaldo and Turki Al Saud; Getty Images)
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