Topic: Saudi Professional League 2023/2024 - page 143. (Read 127601 times)

In several seasons I always follow the development of football, including the Saudi Pro League. this season, for some reason the transfer window does not really attract my attention in its development. well, we know how rich clubs in this competition bring in players who have big names in the European League scene and the question is whether changes will occur in the near future. whether it's in the business sector, or for football itself. I'm not sure in the near future there will be significant changes, at least it takes a process. after all, the one that funds Saudi clubs to bring in star players, Ronaldo and after that is a company owned by the Saudi kingdom. plus it's not just football that is included in their plans, but also includes the development of the world of sports in Saudi. so it's very clear, for us to assume that they have a very big project. btw, we agree that Saudi needs a long time to make its football much more developed than before, that is if the project they fund has clear progress in the future. regarding other points that you said in this post, honestly I don't follow its development. however, interestingly this season there are other teams that are ready to compete with clubs under the auspices of PIF, for example Al Qadsiah who are quite active in bringing in several European players.

Last night was Al-Ittihad's fourth consecutive defeat in pre-season matches and Real Betis did not hold back by crushing them with a score of 4-1. I think this is still not a good result, especially since next season is getting closer and they must get positive results if they don't want to be tied down again like last season.

In fact, if we look at Al-Ittihad, they have played with their main composition such as Benzema, Diaby, and Jota for the attack line and in the middle line there are Aouar and Fabinho. But for some reason they find it very difficult to win and after changing coaches, it seems there is no difference at all. Laurent Blanc must prove his capacity and if in the Saudi pro league this result persists, it is not impossible that Al-Ittihad will fire him in a short time.

In the pre-season match against Granada, it seems that Cristiano Ronaldo also missed it. So Al-Nassr was also without Cristiano Ronaldo in this match. And the result was that Al-Nassr still lost and the final score was 1-0 in favor of Granada. And that means Al-Nassr never got a win in this pre-season match. Hopefully they can run well next season because I personally hope Al-nassr reaches the peak of its glory in the coming season.

Cristiano Ronaldo will definitely try to set a record for many goals again. But we also shouldn't forget that Cristiano Ronaldo's age continues to increase and perhaps his stamina this season may not be as good as last season. But I believe he will still be the player who can contribute the most to the team, just like last season.

Yes, we didn't know much about the Saudi Pro League clubs before and didn't even discuss and hear about those clubs. However, after Cristiano Ronaldo joined a Saudi Pro League club, those clubs and the matches played in that league are coming into discussion. Most of the Middle Eastern countries have been represented for a long time and are associated with various clubs such as Qatar's Nasser Al-Khelaifi. This person is the president of Paris Saint Germain club. He spends lavishly on players to improve his club, just as Saudi Arabian club owners buy star players to add to their squads to brighten up their league.

The owners of Saudi Pro League clubs have already bought Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, Brazil's Neymar Jr., France's Karim Benzema. As these players join different clubs, the rivalry between them is increasing even getting more growth which makes the audience more interested.

Ronaldo currently 39 years old and if Al Nassr is really want to extended his contract and Ronaldo accept it then he will be at Al Nassr until 41 years old and obviously this could be personal record for him because on that age Ronaldo still active as a player and about his chances to playing at Portugal National Team i think the manager will see his performance during playing with Al Nassr before deciding to putting him into Portugal squad for world cup qualification matches or probably to playing at World cup 2026

Regardless of Ronaldo age i think he is still important for Al Nassr because since joining with Al Nassr Ronaldo can playing consistent and scores a lot of goals and i have to says for Al Nassr forward lines Ronaldo is the best compared to other forward players which Al Nassr has and it proven from Ronaldo record because last season he can broke some records and he can being an Al Nassr top scorer in all competitions

Al Nassr without Ronaldo still unable to win from their pre season matches and the latest is today Al Nassr was lost from Laliga team Granada with the final score 1-0 and next match Al Nassr will fight against Al-Taawon at the semifinal of Saudi Super Cup and this is good chances for Al Nassr to gets their first trophy before entering new season but still not confirmed whether Ronaldo will be playing or not

They first came into the limelight when they bought Cristiano Ronaldo and since then people have started learning about the league in a new way. But then we saw that only European senior players signed contracts with various clubs in the Saudi League but recently it appears that all age players are interested in playing in this league. There are players who have spent entire seasons on the bench for various European clubs, but if they decide to come to Saudi Arabia, they get the opportunity to play in the regular XI as well as receive a large annual salary, so this is an opportunity that no player wants to miss out on. 

The Saudi crown prince has taken a number of steps since taking over as king and is slowly implementing those steps. It is mainly because of him that the popularity of Saudi League has increased so much and its popularity will increase in the future.

The government in that country also seems to be helping to advance the world of football there. So it is not surprising that clubs that are under PIF ownership continue to buy players from Europe which could make the SPL more attractive to the world of world football. And I like that move. Because with this SPL is now becoming increasingly popular. And not only that, I also see increased competition and the strength of all SPL clubs has increased drastically. In the past, the trigger might have been when Cristiano Ronaldo arrived. But now we have seen more European star players here. Even 2 players who won the Ballon D'or are also here. Namely Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzema.

Even Real Madrid in 2 of their preseason matchs had never won, first they lost 1-0 to AC Milan and the last they lost to Barcelona with a score of 2-1. So the preseason match should not be used as a benchmark for a team, because the status of the match is a trial of nothing more than that, so don't be surprised when someone can't win during the preseason.
I don't think we need to say anymore that the teams in Asia, especially Saudi Arabia have not been able to match the level of the team from Europe. Maybe some teams can be said to be at the level, but we also have to see how good the competition in the European country, but most Europe is famous for its good football. We must be able to be a little patient to see if they will play well in the competition or not, and we must see that in the actual competition, the article they already use all of their abilities at that time.

It seems that today Ronaldo has arrived in Saudi Arabia and will join his teammates at Al-Nassr to play the remaining pre-season matches. He has missed the previous five pre-season matches and maybe in the last pre-season match against the Spanish team, Granada, he will go down to the field with his teammates. Of course he still needs a warm-up before the important match in mid-August in the Saudi Super Cup against Al-Taawoun.

Ronaldo must prove that his achievements last season with Al-Nassr were not luck and that it was pure hard work that he has always maintained so far. We still remember that last season he managed to score 54 goals in all competitions from club and national team levels and I think he will still be hungry to pursue his record which will soon touch 900 goals before reaching the final target of 1000 goals throughout his career.

The club signed him on the understanding that his annual salary was too high and it was never a big deal for PSG but it was a big deal for PSG that the French club never got him on the field for a full season despite his annual salary. This is basically why psg decided to sell this player and they sold neymar immediately. According to the way Saudi League clubs have spent money on players in the past seasons, Neymar's value is not high at all, but I would not say that the club that bought him has gained much. The club picked him up and he played the whole season as a key player in the team but in the early part of the season he suffered a serious injury which ruled him out for the whole season. Although Al Hilal has given him one more season, if he gets injured this season too and is out of action for the entire season, Al Hilal will undoubtedly sell this player next season.

He is going to be 40 years old anyway. Doesn't matter whether he is going to extend his contract or not. His birthday is in February, so by the time this contract ends he will be 40, but would even be 41 if he plays until 2026.

I think there is a chance that he will extend his contract because he might be aiming for the World Cup 2026. Of course he wouldn't play if he retires, and he doesn't many options now although I think some second tier club in Europe would sign him. But why leave the SPL when you can make 200 million a year over there and still be nominated for the national team in Portugal?

So I think you are right that this probably will end in a contract extension. And he has no injuries, so I understand him as a professional, too. It is hard to let go I am sure and he can still dominate the SPL as he has shown. He will most likely be the top scorer again.

I believe that European players, especially the younger ones, have noticed that the buzz can die down quite quickly. Then you are playing in a league that nobody is watching instead of playing in the Premier League or La Liga. Money means a lot, but come on, they can earn a damn fortune in Europe as well. The Saudis wanted to get a wave going, but they failed. They saw that paying billions doesn't automatically draw more players to their league. They would have to keep going and that's in no way sustainable no matter how much oil they have. They can't be pouring billions in a single player. Ronaldo was an exception. But they raised the bar themselves and then other players said: if Ronaldo earns 200 million a year, I am fine with 80 million. They shot themselves in their knees by raising these expectations.

Imagine they now sign a player and pay 50 million, nobody is even interested anymore. Back then when it started everybody was shocked because nobody knew where this would end. Very short term effect.

Having change is every human's right so same happening in few regions in Gulf which was desert and things were never been easy now due to their unlimited sources they are opening up and having good changes specially in the UAE and Qatar are much ahead but in recent few years we are having same thing happening in Saudi Arab, and they are doing good work for this all specially their success for having soccer World Cup in 2034 is impressive now just because of this we are having huge investment in this league, and they are bringing quality players and coaches for the development of game and their national team.

In last two years, we are having too many big names which are joining this league and giving their best is having good improvement, and now we are having Saudi League into good leagues even we have to understand for having mark into top leagues they needed more time and effort, but their start is good, and they are on course to be had good success in coming years.

A team of Real Madrid caliber even had to wait for Mbappe to be a free agent before they could recruit him, this is clearly not just a matter of negotiating the price and salary. In my opinion, even top European teams have difficulty recruiting their target players, because every team wants to keep their key players, so they can maintain their chances of winning trophies. Teams from the Saudi Pro League will certainly face a bigger challenge, because in reality they are not the main choice for every player. As we can see, the Saudi Pro League is still in the early stages of development, it takes time to make it more competitive, so that it becomes one of the destinations for the world best players. For now, the Saudi Pro League is still the final port for old players, and indeed there are some young players, and so far there have been no transfer breakthroughs that have made the Saudi Pro League more talked about. If a player like Kroos is willing to move to Saudi and not retire first, it might be one of the most interesting this summer.

You can check all the SPL player transfers through this link: https://www.transfermarkt.com/saudi-professional-league/transfers/wettbewerb/SA1

I agree that there is no impressive transfer so far. I don't know why Saudi clubs look like to have no interest to spend a lot of money. Or the interest of European players has been decreasing to join SPL in the current season. Sure, there is a big change, we didn't see anymore a big transfer like Ronaldo, Benzema, Mane, or even Neymar. The best SPL transfer in the current season is Nacho Fernández from Real Madrid. It is unlikely to see another big players to join SPL in the remaining time of the current transfer window.

If you followed his rumor, you must already know that Al Nassr plans to extend his contract. It is reported that Al Nassr will extend 1 year for Ronaldo's contract. It means Ronaldo's contract will be over in Jun 30, 2026. If this happens, Ronaldo will keep playing in SPL until 40 years old. And he may also still play in Portugal national team as well.



Source: givemesport.com

I don't know which deals have been sealed so far, maybe someone can provide an overview or give an informative link about what has happen so far, but if you ask me it feels like the transfer heat that the Saudi Professional League created in the past years has cooled down quite a lot. Transfers a la Ronaldo or Neymar are nowhere to be seen, are they?

So far there hasn't been any spectacular offer that was all over the media.

I am curious to see what Ronaldo is going to do after this season. I can see why he would not be able to resist an extension for another 200 million euros.  But let's see what is going to happen towards the end of the season. He might even go and extend his contract early if the Saudis put a big bag of money on the table.

While the attention is true, they are not making 10% of that money back right now, they are only capable of bringing these players by overpaying them by a lot, Ronaldo alone makes more money than what Saudi league generates as income, meaning that it is not going to be possible for Saudi League to keep this up if they want to be profitable.

However, since they make countless amount of money from oil income, they are not really interested in making this league profitable, they are willing to lose money in order to keep this growing. Will that mean if they spend enough money on the league, one day it will grow to be big enough to actually make good amount of money? I am not sure, but feels like that would take at least a decade, maybe more. They claimed that they want to be sixth biggest league in the world, but they are not even in top 10 right now, hell I wouldn't put them in top 20 right now, and they are spending as much as the top 5 leagues, that's not a good return.

Profits are made in the transfer window especially from SPL influential men. The top investors in Saudi Arabia will not relent, they will ensure they table the best offers for European players. Growth is the main target for these clubs because they've fought with everything and targeting big winning. Saudi Pro League is a tough one to predicts, it's been really a hectic day for most of these SPL clubs.

Big fund investment for signing top Europe players and make Saudi Pro League as most interested competition for prepare Saudi Arabia want to be single host of FIFA World Cup 2034. Started investment since last three season ago since recruit Cristiano Ronaldo make Saudi Pro League become more popular competition after many top players leave their top career with Europe team and joining for Saudi Arabia clubs.
Not any problem yet almost three season ago when Cristiano Ronaldo joining with Al Nassr because most of Saudi Arabia club not get difficult with salary payment and they have good financial condition.

Its most successful investment did by Saudi Arabia how to make their football competition become more popular and enough capital to be hos of World Cup 2034, not only invested with how beautiful their stadium but also Saudi Arabia brave make investment for their club sign many top qualities players and make most of them earn fantastic salary payment until become most expensive football salary around the world.

Saudi Pro League organizers are having good strategy from the early days when they started to work on bringing this league into limelight and their first success was having Cristiano Ronaldo here with this now things are taking huge changes and many big names are trying to have their part as well because mostly are feeling things are going on right track, and they can do good in future as well.

Here we also have to understand this league can't be at the top or having good standard in just one or two years it needs long time and strong strategy with good sources, and they are having all things which will help them for keeping things on track as we are having updates next season could be more improved because we are having many big names after ending their contracts are joining Saudi League this could be good change, and they will be surely feel better after having more big names here now they are having good intention to work on this and bring this all on better level.

Yeah this is their plan that we have known since the beginning whatever they do is just to attract attention not to compete with European clubs, what happened in the Saudi Pro League was just part of a trial I mean this plan has a deadline, when Investment in football is not profitable then they will stop it and they will continue to monitor its growth. I heard that Saudi wants to get out of dependence on oil so they try to divert it to other sectors such as entertainment, sports and property and they prepared a budget of more than 700 billion, imagine if investment in sports was not profitable then they will stop it. In addition, they also have the ambition to host the World Cup which I think is the right moment to measure investment on sports.