Saudi Arabia, a new El Dorado for European players in pre-retirement, but not only. With an unlimited budget, several clubs in the Saudi League (which will resume on August 11) have managed to attract confirmed and prime names for significant sums. Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kanté, Marcelo Brozovic, Kalidou Koulibaly and Sergej Minlinkovic-Savic took the path opened up last winter by Cristiano Ronaldo.
“My choice was criticized. Now all the players come here,” noted the former Real Madrid striker in an interview with transfer window specialist Fabrizio Romano. Saudi Arabia is panicking the football world and the craze is far from over. Le Figaro takes stock of the signatures already recorded, club by club.
We are talking about it: temporarily deprived of recruitment due to unpaid debts, Al-Nassr is still closely monitoring the situation of Senegalese international Sadio Mané. The winger would no longer be part of Bayern Munich’s plans.
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We’re talking about it: the team coached by Jorge Jesus would like to offer Fabinho, but the Brazilian midfielder Liverpool could cancel the operation because his French bulldogs are banned in Saudi Arabia.
We’re talking about it: Al-Hilal would have offered 300 million euros to PSG to recruit Kylian Mbappé, and would be ready to offer the star Bondy a salary of 700 million euros over one season, then let him go to Real Madrid. The club would also have seen its offer of 60 million euros accepted by the Zenith Saint Petersburg for the Brazilian Malcom, a former player of Bordeaux and FC Barcelona.
We’re talking about it: the promoted youngster has reportedly set his sights on former Rennes and Strasbourg coach, Frenchman Julien Stéphan. Nothing is done yet but discussions exist according to the team. Al-Ahli would also like to offer Allan Saint-Maximin, but the €34.5million offered to Newcastle is considered suspicious by other Premier League clubs as both teams are owned by the same owner, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. Another Premier League player set to join the Jeddah side is Algerian international Riyad Mahrez. Manchester City would have agreed to let go of their winger against around 30 million euros.
We talk about it: Al-Ettifaq should secure the services of Moussa Dembélé, free. The striker was not extended by Olympique Lyonnais.
