During the end-of-year holidays, the sports editorial team at Le Figaro brings you a series on the “robbers” of the sports year, these personalities or entities not necessarily expected and who have been talked about in 2023. Today, the raid Saudi clubs on the football planet.
Who would have bet, when Cristiano Ronaldo left Manchester United for Al-Nassr in the final hours of 2022, that his transfer was just the first coup in a (very) long list? That, following the example of the Portuguese, Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kanté, Sadio Mané, Neymar, Malcom, Roberto Firmino and many others would flee the biggest European teams in the summer of 2023 to join Al-Ittihad, Al -Ahli, Al-Hilal or even Al-Ettifaq?
“I opened the way to the Saudi league, and now all the players come here,” the five-time Ballon d’Or boasted in an interview given last July to Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano. In a year, more and more top players will come to Saudi Arabia. In a year, the Saudi Championship will overtake the Turkish Championship and the Dutch Championship.” To see the impressive contingent of stars who came to practice in the Gulf, it is difficult to prove him wrong.
With the help of millions of euros, the Saudi Pro League quite simply achieved one of the most significant transfer windows in history. Firstly by the amounts invested by the Kingdom, more than 800 million euros, or 14% of total market expenditure according to a FIFA study. An amount even lower than that of the English championship (1.85 billion euros) but unprecedented for a championship that is still minor, at least belonging to a confederation other than UEFA.
Then by recruiting players in full possession of their means such as Allan Saint-Maximin (26 years old), Aleksandar Mitrovic (29 years old), Ruben Neves (26 years old), Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (28 years old), Luiz Felipe (26 years old ), Otavio (28 years old), Aymeric Laporte (29 years old) or Seko Fofana (28 years old). Yes, the Saudi championship is the choice of money, but it is not limited to a golden destination for former glories in early retirement. Not to mention that illustrious coaches have also attempted the Gulf adventure, including Steven Gerrard, Jorge Jesus, Marcelo Gallardo and even Roberto Mancini for the national team.
Saudi Arabia’s ambitions in football have been known for a long time. At the origin of this offensive, there is the awareness of falling behind Qatar, Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates. The soft power strategy through sport is part of Vision 2030, a major plan to diversify the economy and transform the country launched in 2016 by Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salman.
“The idea is to use monopolized competitions and clubs to improve the image of Saudi Arabia, criticized by Westerners, and attract investors,” explains to Le Figaro Kévin Veyssière, creator of Football Club Geopolitics, a media specializing in the analysis of geopolitical issues through the prism of sport. The hosting of the Italian Super Cup since 2018 and that of Spain since 2019 was only a foretaste. The first major milestone was reached in October 2021, when a consortium composed of 80% of the Public Investment Fund (FIP), the sovereign fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, bought the English club Newcastle.
Like Qatar with PSG or Abu Dhabi with Manchester City, Saudi Arabia wanted its club and got it. But neither Qatar, nor India, nor China, nor the United States, nor any other emerging football nation, have managed to develop their domestic championship in parallel. In a single transfer window, the Saudi Kingdom has overturned the established order in world football and now displays boundless ambition. This is evidenced by his candidacy for the organization of the 2034 World Cup. The only candidate in the running, he promises “a world-class tournament” on the model of the last World Cup in Qatar. As such, the Saudi Pro League is a formidable armed arm. It remains to be seen whether its appeal is just a fad or a trend set to last.
