Saudi league has been popular but it will become more popular with another top player like Van Dijk. I'm sure there will be more top players joining Saudi league because the teams offer big salaries for them. However, not all top players have the intention to play in Saudi league, some of them prefer to stay in Europe until the end of their career. And some players prefer to move to MLS.
Sure, it will be not easy to convince Liverpool. Van Dijk is the mainstay defender of Liverpool. I see no chance that Van Dijk to move to Saudi league in this season. He may move to Saudi league, but seems not for the next season. There is still no other defenders in Liverpool who can replace the role of Van Dijk this time. It won't be a wise decision if Liverpool lets him moving to Saudi league. If he has the intention to play in Saudi, I guess it should be in 2025 (contract expire).
It not easy to convince Van Dijk to move but money and the treatment that would be offered to him could entice, Yes , players not only want to stay where they like but also want to earn huge some amount of salaries and wages, If Ronaldo went to the Saudi pro league to play despite his achievements and his fame ,I believe other players can move and Van Dijk isn't an exceptional to that.
Yes, the Saudi Arabian League is quite famous at the moment, because the teams in it have a number of top players from Europe. However, if you look deeper, the majority of top European players who have joined the Saudi Arabian League are only quite old players. So if you look at these facts, in my opinion the Saudi Arabian League is not yet at a stage of great popularity. Because in essence, players from Europe are most likely interested in joining a Saudi Arabian League club simply because the salaries offered by clubs are quite large.
Likewise with Virgil Van Djik's problem, I think the answer is quite clear. Because if he chooses a big salary and money, then he will definitely move to Saudi Arabia. But if for example he chooses a career, then he will definitely stay at Liverpool. So now Virgil Van Dijk seems to prefer to stay at Liverpool, because of course he is still really needed there. Apart from that, it doesn't seem like Liverpool will let Virgil Van Dijk go to any club at this time.
Liverpool will not let Van Dijk leave and will try to renew his contract.
Source: https://mediaprospek.com/2024/06/15/virgil-van-dijk-dan-alisson-becker-tolak-gabung-cristiano-ronaldo-di-al-nassr/So, with this, Virgil Van Dijk certainly failed to be recruited by a team from Saudi Arabia.
Apart from that, if we compare Ronaldo and Virgil Van Dijk, it is certain that in terms of popularity or fame, the two are also different and in terms of age they are also clearly far apart. So if you think that Virgil Van Dijk will be easier to tempt with money than Ronaldo, I don't think that's right. Because we need to know that Virgil Van Dijk is still 32 years old, so he can definitely still be sought after by big clubs in Europe. Meanwhile, Ronaldo is quite old, apart from that when he left Manchester United, if I'm not mistaken at that time, none of the big teams from Europe were interested in signing him. That's why when an offer came from Al Nasr he accepted it. So basically the situation that befell Ronaldo and Virgil Van Dijk is clearly different.