Topic: Saudi Professional League 2023/2024 - page 665. (Read 126828 times)

Jordan Henderson comes with a lot of experience, has great leadership qualities and it's good that Steven Gerrard was able to get him on his team but a tree cannot make a forest. Al Ettifaq does not come close to one of the powerhouses in the Saudi Arabian professional league, they look more like a mild table team. I don't know the quality of the current team but judging from the level of transfer activities going on at other rival clubs, I think Al Ettifaq needs major reinforcements to compete for trophies next seasons. It would be nice to see the club bring in more European top players.

Of course this is a good step for the Saudi Arabian league, where the many European players who come there will make football more attractive to young people. So that this enthusiasm can be used as a step to prepare the generation of football in Saudi Arabia to be more reckoned with in the world. Apart from that, football can also be an entry point for business people there to make a profit, so that the infrastructure will be increasingly prepared as a support.

Indirectly Cristiano Ronaldo is an icon that makes the Saudi Arabian league more and more known and because he is also a lot of European players who today have decided to play in the Saudi Arabian league. Even though most of them are over 30 years old, this step is a good start and it is possible that in the next five years more and more young players will go to the Saudi Arabian League.

This can be the way to the top, or it is just the beginning of a league that will get better and better over the next 5 years. This is financed by the Saudi sovereign fund. All this gets better and better as long as the money paid, there are few players who can refuse such salaries... even if they are 1-2 years from the end of their career. If things go on like this they might be among the top 5 leagues in the world in the next 2-3 years.

Mbappe may have made a pre-agreement with Real Madrid after turning down an offer from Saudi Arabia. I meant it's an unbelievable thing to see mbappe was rejecting a very big amount of money.
That reminds me with the principal motive of mbappe to stay in PSG due tot he money but he is now rejecting saudi's offer. Mbappe has his own agenda. My prediction if the pre agreement with real madrid was true story. Mbappe use money as main reason to stay in PSG while he is now rejecting at offer that will give him more compared what he demanded from PSG. It sounds non sense to see that.

Does anyone know what his salary will be? If I understand this correctly, the 30 million euros are the transfer fee only, but I assume that he makes quite a good salary over there. He is still in good shape and I mean if they really sign Mbappe as well, the names on paper would start to appear impressive as I guess this wasn't the last transfer for them.

- Ok now I found something, it is "£750,000-a-week for a two-year stint in the desert.". I think that is around 100 million euros for two years. I thought it could be a little more than that but still not too bad.

Riyad Mahrez from Manchester City become the latest player to join the Saudi league in a move worth 30 million euros. He will play for Al-Ahli until the year 2027. Manchester City will miss him due to the role he could play in games and how technically sound he was, but to Al-Ahli, he will bring a lot of advantage to their team from the wing where he plays uniquely. He will join Former Chelsea number one goalkeeper Mendy and Former Liverpool star Firmino to help Al-Ahli in the coming season.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12348549/Riyad-Mahrez-leaves-Man-City-completing-30m-Saudi-Arabian-Al-Ahli-hails-unforgettable-five-year-stay-Premier-League-champions.html

@Docnaster you're right, let's just bury it and focus on the other development of the league News, Mbappe has messed up by refusing such amount of money for just a year.  The Psg he chose to play next season even when he has lost the relationship between him and the management will not help him. It will effect his performance next season.

Nevertheless, Jordan Henderson just signed a three years really with Al Effiga. He will play under his former team mate, Gerrard Steven as his coach. 

Yes, now it's just a matter of waiting for both parties to agree on the price that will be agreed later, because looking from the player's side, he has confirmed that he can join, but now only from the club's side. Maybe Al Hilal will come with a price that is at least close to what Paris Siant Germain want, and higher than what they proposed before. I feel that they will find an agreement in the middle, I mean, more than the price that Al Hilal is asking now, and not reaching the price that Paris Saint Germain wants. Psg should be able to release the player even if they don't get what they want in terms of price.

Now that Kylian Mbappe has finally clarified the media of his decision concerning the huge offer from Al Hilal, I think it'll be better to bury the news and talk about other footballing news that concerns the Saudi Arabian League that more ideal to deliberate on.
Al Hilal I think knows that it'll be very difficult for a player of Mbappe's quality and age to leave Europe and join the Saudi League at the very time of his career and that was why the club's offer was the highest record transfer offer for a single player. Mbappe surely has more years to play in Europe before considering leaving.

Mbappe has a dream of playing for Real Madrid, so it's understandable that he turn down the offer from Al Hilal. Many high-profile players may be effected by the financial prospects in Saudi Arabia league, but Mbappe's focus remain same and that's joining a top-tier club like Real Madrid that regularly competes in the Champions League. It might be too early for him to consider playing in the Saudi Pro League if he wants to fulfill his ambitions. However, money isn't his primary motivator, but suppose to remain at Europe so as to win alot as they did (Messi, Ronaldo and others)

Henderson was a great player, and he has been a captain on liverpool for so many years. Many people are getting heartsick after knowing he will be leaving from the club to join in ettifaq. It's not only it. Fabinho is also on the way to join in al ittihad. Liverpool is gonna lose two players. Henderson is gonna get £700k/week. He knew the consequence from his decision to leave from liverpool.



So many saudi pro league has been massively recruiting so many players from european leagues. It's only one or two. The summer transfer season is still long way to go. There will always be chances for saudi clubs to sign more players to make all of teams balanced.
AFAIK, a lot of saudi clubs have been also preparing their delegations in EU to recruit the new player to play in SPL.

Mbappe already turned down Al Hilal offer, I saw it on news yesterday, he just make a brilliant decision which am sure will be a difficult decision to make. It’s just better for Mbappe to focus on his career for now, I know Al Hilal made a juicy offer which am sure it’s very tempting for every players, but if Mbappe can accept there offer, then his career has already being destroyed. I know Saudi league are trying to build their league, they want peoples attention to shift to their league that’s why they are spending all those huge amounts on money on transfers, but they can’t just get the kind of attention they need in short period of time, it’s a gradual process, they shouldn’t just spend all this amount of money on players in just a season alone.

In theory, the Saudis are doing everything right. For starters, the sheikhs tried European soccer by buying PSG, Manchester City and other teams, but even after spending billions of dollars and the demise of these clubs, for many they remained strangers, mere bags of money to be tolerated until a European or American owner comes and buys the club.
Now they are pouring money into their own leagues, into their own country, as I think it is more promising.

There was a club in Russia called "Anzhi Makhachkala" a long time ago, where they pumped millions of dollars and bought world-class players like Samuel Eto'o, Roberto Carlos, Willian and others. The club played in the European leagues, was on the rumor then.

But as soon as the oligarch's money ran out or rather they were plundered, everything fell apart at once, all the players were sold and in a couple of years everyone forgot just the star players. Now the club is disbanded.

We are seeing more and more and more players going towards Saudi league, it is not that great still yet, we are still seeing mostly 30+ year olds going there, still not that many talented young players there so far, and that's a reality check this league will face when they start the league, we will see those players who go there for the money not play with their heart in it.

But at the end of the day, they still managed to achieve something not that many other teams has achieved so far, which is making sure that they are getting their names heard as a league. This means that they will have a lot of people watching their games, they already did it last season with Ronaldo, and now this season there will be a lot more people for sure.

Saudi clubs are not relenting in on dedicating themselves to sign more players; they continue to target and bring in players from European clubs, since this is the only way to maintain their league appealing characteristics intact. Jordan Henderson is almost certainly a legend, and after spending so many years with the club, I see no reason for him to leave without his Anfield credentials. Jurgen Klopp believed in him; nonetheless, he is becoming older and may need to leave this competitive team. It's shocking to watch Liverpool players give the go-ahead to Saudi clubs during the transfer window.

Mbappe will try to chase titles in Europe and Ballon d'Or too and he will not sacrifice his career in Europe to join Saudi Professional League only because of money he can earn in the nation. He is greedy but he is an ambitious player too and I think his ambition is bigger and more important for him than his greediness and money.

Six years are long if we think of it at the present but if we look at the past, we can see our past six years passed very quickly and it is just yesterday. Career-span of a football player is very short and Mbappe is like other football players, he must to care of his career, his income which he can have though his career and how to achieve best things from titles to personal awards during golden time of his career. To solve all of these and to maximize his career are very challenging for Mbappe.

They are a rich nation and has a solid strategy with good support from their government and I believe that they are doing this with a very long term vision, like hosting another World Cup in Middle East after Qatar 2022. They also want to achieve bigger results on field, better than Qatar in the latest World Cup.

To achieve this, they will have to build up a stronger Saudi Professional League and it can not be done after one or two years. So the last few months are beginning of their plan for like one or two next decades.

Steven Gerrard managed to convince him to leave Liverpool even though he is still a player who has an important role at Anfield, I'm not sure he would have left Liverpool if it weren't for Steven Gerrard. It was a good buy for Ettifaq because even though Jordan Henderson is over 30 years old he is still playing well, and he can always give a strong spirit to his friends in the team.
It's just my guess, I think he will be the captain of the Ettifaq team, because while at Liverpool he has been quite successful in showing his leadership.
There will be at least 4 former Liverpool players going to the SPL, Fabinho is still in negotiations and Mane, who was once rumored to be going to the SPL, has received an official offer from Al Nassr with a transfer value of 37 million Euros and the agent has opened talks with the Arab club.

6 years is a very long time, both for the Saudi Professional League as well as the European leagues. Your question regarding the SPL is applicable for the European leagues such as EPL and Ligue 1 as well. And in case of SPL, I am expecting this big investments to continue till at least 2030. Because Saudi Arabia is hoping to win hosting rights for the 2030 FIFA World Cup. This is one of the reasons why they are strengthening the SPL, by brining in star players from all around the world. Anyway, Mbappé doesn't have any intention to move to Saudi Arabia for now.

Jordan Henderson was a great player for Liverpool and he played there for years while we all know any player and even Jordan Henderson will get old over time and should get retired one day but still, I think instead of finishing his career in Arabian teams, Jordan Henderson could get retired in Liverpool.

You're right, Mbappe is currently a topic in the world of football all of that means nothing if he never gets the Champions League title and other titles so we all understand his ambition and he knows that only with Madrid will he have the chance to achieve anything. Currently Mbappe is 24 years old, meaning he still has 6 years to pursue a career after reaching 30 years he will think about other things besides career    The problem is we don't know whether in the next 6 years the Saudi Pro League will still be like this or not or maybe he was replaced by a more talented newcomer, who knows?