Topic: Saudi Professional League 2023/2024 - page 711. (Read 119192 times)

First off, Benzema is about to hop onto the Ronaldo wagon to Al-Ittihad! I mean, he's seen his injury list, done his math and figured - "Why not take the money and sprint?"! Can you blame him?

Then there's Ramos. He's a free agent, and if I were a betting man, which I am, I'd say he's likely to follow his ex-Real Madrid mates. Busquets, on the other hand, is keeping us all on our toes! The rumours are pointing towards Saudi Arabia, but who knows? We'll just have to wait and see.

Modric, though...I have my doubts. His loyalty to Real Madrid seems to be rock solid. Would he really ditch that for a new adventure? And Messi? All's quiet on that front. Now, wouldn't that be a game-changer if he moves to Al Hilal? Gosh, it's like a football soap opera unfolding before our eyes!

Karim Benzema does not want to keep Real Madrid and it is not certain whether Karim Benzema will follow the instructions shown by Ronaldo. But one thing is very clear that compared to other clubs Saudi Arabia based clubs offer much higher market value. Therefore, even if Karim Benzema is included in any club in Saudi Arabia, it will not be unrealistic.
On the other hand, Lionel Messi's two-year contract with PSG is nearing its end, Messi has already been offered by Barcelona Football Club and SPL club Al Hilal has already made an offer for Messi with a market value of $1.2 billion. Now all decisions rest on Messi whether he will move to Saudi club or join Barcelona it is a matter of time.

Maybe, Sergio Ramos will follow in the footsteps of his two former team-mates when he was with Real Madrid. Ramos is currently a free agent, even before he was rumored to be linked with a club from the Saudi league. now, what was rumored could happen. Well, let's wait, which club is willing to bring him.

Busquets, as reported by ESPN, Sergio Busquets, who has announced his departure from Barcelona. Rumor has it that Busquets may be moving to Saudi Arabia. Even mentioned by ESPN, Buesquets has been interested in the Al Hilal club, one of the giants in this competition, his existence has also been linked with Messi. however, so far there have been no official claims regarding its future. it's possible that according to the original plan leaving for MLS, or following in the footsteps of other players who are also competing in this competition.

Modric, rumors he will stay with Los Blancos. I'm pretty sure that Modric will stay with Real Madrid. because, of all the existing Madrid players. Modric's work ethic and unquestioned loyalty.

Messi, so far there is no certainty regarding his future. now, we just have to wait for the decision for his future. whether it's returning to Camp Nou, or accepting Al Hilal's offer.

Benzema, as quoted by Fabrizio Romano. that Benzema has confirmed he has accepted an offer from Al Ittihad, and that he will bid farewell to Madrid fans next Tuesday.
So, let's wait for another star player who will move to the Saudi Pro League competition.

It seems that Messi will represent the champion of this country next year. Then we are going to have another titanic battle between Messi and Ronaldo. But Ramos is also leaving PSG, I wouldn't be surprised if we see him back in a team from this country next season. But where? With Messi in a team or with Ronaldo? He has played with both for a while now, with Ronaldo longer. It takes some getting used to for Ronaldo that he has not become champion. Why don't they get more of these types of players in these countries?

Football is already the favorite sporting event for Arabs in general not only in Saudi Arabia for the entire Arab region. So you do not need to ignite anything to make it popular.

Saudi started to become liberal recently and hence they are welcoming major events and opening their door to global sporting events. They are not keen on generating money from the public, they already have enough wealth to sign major players irrespective of the profit they earn, that is a major difference from other sporting nations.

I never mentioned the Chinese market, it is one aspect of Asia, there are countries like Korea, Japan, India who have a major fan following in Football and there are over 50 leagues in Asia alone. There is a reason Chinese clubs are not signing European players because they are not willing to shell out the money considering the profit margins but Saudi has the money and they are willing to spend and develop their league and that is the major difference.

They are not trying to replicate el clasico but to have a world renowned player and get mentored by them is a huge deal. With time they will be able to build up a team well enough to compete on a global scale.

PSG is playing Al Nassr next month in a friendly match, why do you think that is happening. They have the ability in their pockets to invite European clubs to view the matches they wanted to see.

From what I see Benzema, even though he is a great player, he must have analyzed his injury history and concluded that it is better to go to a lighter league and as they are paying him a very high salary, so without a doubt that it is worth it for Benzema to be in Al -Ittihad, who is a much better team than the team Ronaldo is in, has a good coach and I don't know if they will keep the current coach, I'm talking about Nuno Espírito Santo who is Portuguese and made Al-Ittihad become champion . Busquets and Sergio Ramos are saying that they are going to the same team as Ronaldo, honestly that would be a good move

but the problem with ronaldo's team is the lack of a good coach, so far i haven't heard anything about hiring a coach for ronaldo's team, because from what i see good coaches prefer to stay in europe even with a salary that is not equal as for arabia, this is something very strange given that many coaches are already old, but as they do not run in the field, it makes sense to stay in europe to achieve great things that would fill their curriculum and mark their names in history

Here's list of players that have been linked to the arabian club

1. Benzema
2. Ramos
3. Messi
4. Busquets
5. Modric
6. Who's next?

Benzema has been deciding to follow ronaldo to go to the ittihad while modric has been also receiving very big contract from unnamed club. I hope that will be revealed soon like benzema which has been getting offer from ittihad.

So many players with big names come to the spl. That's good. Messi is likely the next one.

People keep thinking that Al-Nassr got him so that they would win championship, I always said that it wasn't about that at all. They lost by a hefty 5 point difference even though they were ahead when he got there, everyone who tried to defend him said "but his teammates are bad!!" when in fact those teammates without him ended up being leader before him, and lost when he got there, I think it was him that caused some disparity in the team without a doubt.

However, this was a move by the whole league, and the rich Saudi people, those wealthy people aim at making Saudi league top 10 in the world quickly, and their future goal is to be in the top 5, after all they have premier league and la liga which nobody can pass, Bundesliga is good and Serie is good but ligue 1 only has PSG, maybe they can pass that.

That's future though, they aim at top 10 and Ronaldo was the first step for that. They may overspend and get players that are famous and old for now and just be better. It is not just for one team, Ronaldo could have been at Ittihad and it is the same situation, the goal is to fill the whole league with great players.

It is possible, if there are several star players who will play in the Saudi Pro League next season. maybe, Ramos will be in demand by several Arab League clubs because it is certain that he will end this season with PSG. it could also be, Busquets if offered by big clubs in this league. yes, there are many possibilities that could happen. But so far only two stars have had offers to join Al Hilal and Al Ittihad.
For Messi, there is no certainty of news. But if you refer to several reports, one of which is Fabrizio Romano said, Messi will determine his career in the near future. If in the end Barcelona still has problems with FFP. This means that Messi has the potential to join Al Hilal.

In other news, Ancelotti on Karim Benzema and reports of a deal with the Saudi club : "I agree with Karim, the Internet is not a reality. Benzema has one more year contract with Real Madrid until 2024 and we have no doubts". However, in his statement, Benzema did not confirm that he would stay with Los Blancos. referring to another Romano tweet, Karim benzema: "stay or leave Real Madrid? now, I'm here.. we have Saturday's game. maybe after that, we'll find out for sure if he stays, or, very interesting to wait.

You shouldn't think so. Look at Barcelona - a big brand, big achievements and the club is almost bankrupt. At the same time, they cannot significantly reduce the salaries of the players, as they will simply start to scatter to more solvent clubs. The presence of super offers from the Saudis will only warm up the salary market and intensify competition for players. It is clear that the Saudis can not compete with Europe in any way in the football sense, but warming up the salary market, they (unwittingly) can cause many clubs in Europe to simply go bankrupt (or be forced to sell players).

Even so, Luka Modric has stated firmly in an interview, that he wants to stay at Real Madrid. So a club from Saudi Arabia that wants Modric to join, I don't think will get him at this time. Regarding European clubs, I don't think European clubs will feel too threatened by the breakthroughs made by Saudi Arabian clubs like today. Because even so, clubs in Europe still have class and quality that is very difficult for any country's soccer league to suppress. Because Europe has long been a storehouse of football and has given birth to many star players. In Europe, the facilities and teaching that are applied in football are very good and of good quality. Even from the past until now, many young players have dreamed and aspired to play in European clubs.
So it's not surprising that Europe won't budge and vibrate with the breakthroughs made by clubs from Saudi Arabia. And in essence, European clubs will never be empty of star players, because there will continue to be lots of great players coming from all over the world.

I hope that more star players will enter the Saudi Pro League. At least there are already many star players who are now getting high offers with super expensive salaries by several clubs from the Arab League. Al-ittihad seems to want Benzema and Al-Hilal seems to be eyeing Messi and Luka Modric seems to be targeted by Club Al-Ahli.

Well, if in the next season these legendary players enter the Arab League. then I'm also pretty sure there will be more young players who will also be interested in getting into the Arab League. High salary will certainly be the main attraction. and it looks like next season the competition will be even hotter. because most likely there will be more top European players who enter this league.

I agree, I mean why would he care if he comes off the bench, dude is 37+ years old and he has achieved all he could and he could spend a season or two being on the bench sometimes, get in later in the games sometimes and even start some games, and that would be good enough to retire on.

If he can do that at Real Madrid out of all teams, that means he stayed healthy and good for a long enough time. Hell even Ronaldo and Messi would be bench players and maybe not even find places in that team so finding his spot there at that age is definitely great. Let them get Kai or Jude or whoever, Modric would be good. However, Ittihad may get Benzema, which would be insane if they can actually do that, it would help them big time for scoring goals, dude is still great.

Ronaldo is a brand a sensation. He has great fan following and when he joined Alnasar he has been the great attrection and brought a great joy in the life of Arab kids and people belonging to all phases of lives - now when Messi will join SPL that will be a great force for sure

The debate about the old players who are rumored to be going to the Saudi Pro League seems to be answered one by one. Karim Benzema is reported to have extended his contract at Real Madrid until next year so he will spend one more season at Real Madrid maybe after that he will go to the Saudi Pro League https://www.transfermarkt.com/new-extension-until-2024-karim-benzema-set-to-stay-at-real-madrid-for-one-more-season/view/news/422444
Luca Modric is also certain to extend his contract for a year at Real Madrid https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12054067/Luka-Modric-Real-Madrid-reach-total-agreement-contract-renewal-sign-2024.html

while Lionel Messi has no recent news although he has confirmed that he will not extend his contract at PSG but has not yet announced the next club, and the latest is Sergio Ramos who has decided to leave PSG reportedly going to the Arab League and it seems that Ramos will be more certain of his arrival because he has not announced his retirement so he still needs a club to keep playing.

Ok but I think you are more of an exception than the rule. Watching the entire league and knowing all the teams because a 38 year old Cristiano plays there is not the rule. I assume that most people pay a little bit of attention, paid more attention in the beginning but now also realized that the SPL hasn't really changed. Ronaldo is there and even when there is drama I noticed on this forum that the discussion gets less significant. His club was closer to the top without him.



I absolutely understand what is owned by whom and still one of the most valuable aspect of European soccer is the deeply rooted culture. You won't make baseball the number 1 sport in Europe and you won't make soccer the number 1 sport in USA. You can buy the fastest camels and start a camel racing league in Europe, but it won't go anywhere compared to soccer.

Soccer has already been the most popular sport in Saudi Arabia and yet it is where it is. Money can do a lot, but if you can't copy and preserve the culture it will unsustainable in the long run. A Saudi buying a club in Europe has more fun than a Saudi trying to build a European club in Saudi Arabia. Do the maths.

Your last point is about the Chinese Asian market and yes that is a very valid consideration. But there is still some cultural identification and that is why European players really never liked going to Chinese clubs because we are so different and that is ok. That is absolutely ok. We are more international and globalized, but you won't be able to import sumo ringing from Japan to Europe and have the people in Europe cheer as much for the sport as they do in Japan. What do you think where the Japanese professionals were to prefer to perform? Europe or Japan? If the money is big enough, they go to Europe, but it won't be sustainable because they grew up their whole life in a different place, inherited culture and attitudes and food and everything.

You can't just buy one Messi per team and say you have a great league. Just as an example, try to calculate what it would cost in salaries to build a 2015 Real Madrid and Barcelona in the SPL to at least have a clasico that the whole world will be watching because it is the highest quality soccer you can get from clubs. Then you need persistence, so let's say you build those two clubs and Atletico to keep it extra exciting and all three clubs for 7 years. Only salaries.

Not only Messi, but now Benzema has been linked with Al Ittihad. imagine, there are three top Saudi Pro League clubs that have big stars if in the end Messi and Benzema are willing to accept the offer. however, Al Hilal's offer was more fantastic than the salary Ronaldo received. the question is whether this competition will be more competitive.

However, when viewed from another perspective the competition will be increasingly fierce. Ronaldo with Al Nassrnya, Messi with Al Hilal and Benzema with Al Ittihad. these three teams, will compete strictly in the race for the Saudi Pro League trophy. Unfortunately, what we are discussing is still not certain. Messi, reportedly will give his decision in the near future and especially after his contract with PSG ends.
on the other hand, Benzema did not reject the offer from Al Ittihad. but it seems he needs time to think, even as Fabrizio Romano said in his tweet. Benzema is discussing it with his family and he will make a decision soon. but before that, he still has one game to go in La Liga. well, in the next few weeks, it looks like we will get an official decision from these players. so, let's just wait.

I haven't seen any past or present interview where Luka Modric has openly said he wants to remain at the Santiago Bernabeu and see off his playing career and I don't even think he has ever said such Luka Modric is a player who loves new challenges.
As a footballer, he's won everything he's supposed to win at Real Madrid and as his playing career draws to an end because of his age, I think a good financial package will definitely lure him to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabian league isn't as popular as the any of the Europe big five leagues but after they got the services of Cristiano Ronaldo, many football fans all over the world has switched their attention to there and that's why they want they want to get more high-profile players to help them boost the popularity and quality of the league. I believe in the next 10 years, Saudi Arabian league would be a household name among football faithfuls all over the world

I understand your point and hence said signing CR7 was the first step to make the Saudi leagues known globally, before that i never watched any of the matches nor had any idea about the teams but now i am following the entire league and signing big names is the first step and more big time players will be moving to Saudi as they have the money.

You need to understand that majority of the big English and European clubs are now owned by Arab countries like PSG, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Saudi's owned Newcastle United and Sheffield United. Common theme is that they have the money and if they are willing to give huge offers do you think that the young talents wont be signing with them. It is a long term plan and it is a matter of time that they start grooming youngsters like the rest of the European clubs and at the end of the day money talks and they have plenty of them.

Another aspect is that, you are just thinking about European Football fans, majority of the global population is in Asia and if they could attract the Asian crowd it is a much bigger audience.

But in reality, Al Khaleej was able to play well in the first half by winning from many statistics but the result at half time Al Khaleej trailed 0-1. But yes, in the end or in the second half Al Khaleej was able to maximize every chance he had, so Al Khaleej could win with a good score 3-1. With this result, at least Al Khaleej can survive to continue playing in the Saudi Professional League next season, because Al Khaleej also avoided relegation.