SAUDI PRO LEAGUE
Ronaldo, Neymar and Benzema set sights on Asian Champions League title
Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Karim Benzema have won a combined total of 11 UEFA Champions League titles and, starting Monday, they lead the Saudi Arabian challenge in the Asian edition.
Neymar, who last week surpassed Pele’s international goal tally for Brazil, arrived at Al-Hilal in August and made his league debut on Friday as the four-time Asian champion thrashed Abha 6-1. Hilal lost the final to Urawa Reds of Japan last May.
Since then, Saudi Arabian clubs have spent around $950 million on some of the biggest stars in the world. The spending is being fueled by a move by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth Public Investment Fund to take a majority ownership stake in four of the country’s top clubs, Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahli and Al-Nassr.
As well as Neymar, Al-Hilal has signed English Premier League stars Ruben Neves, Kalidou Koulibaly and Aleksandar Mitrovic as well as Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, Brazilian winger Malcom and Serbian midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
Mumbai City has been placed in the same group and the Indians are looking forward to a chance to take on Hilal and especially its Brazilian superstar.
“I think anyone that’s seen the movement in some of these teams, and Neymar being the latest to arrive there, it’s exciting,” Mumbai’s coach Des Buckingham said. “They’re bringing that caliber and quality of player to India, which is going to be extremely exciting for us and for our club but also for the fans of India.”
In total, there are four Saudi Arabian representatives among the 40 in the group stage with the ten group winners and the six-best second -placed teams progressing to the second round.
After years of games between Saudi Arabia and Iran being played in neutral venues, Ronaldo will lead Al-Nassr to Tehran on Tuesday to take on Persepolis. The visitor has never lifted the Asian trophy.
Persepolis president Reza Darvish told local television earlier this month that Al-Nassr will be provided with full access to the internet, unlike the general public in the country.
“I have spoken with the CEO of Irancell, and I told him we want to give players and personnel Irancell SIM cards with unrestricted internet so they can use it from the time they enter Iran till the time they leave,” Darvish said.
Al-Ittihad is Saudi Arabian champion and, as well as Benzema, has brought in past European winners such as N’Golo Kante from Chelsea and Fabinho from Liverpool. The two-time Asian champion starts against AGMK of Uzbekistan in Jeddah.
Al-Fayha completes the Saudi quartet but is not owned, like the other three, by the Public Investment Fund and does not have the same star power. The team starts with a tough trip to Uzbekistan to take on Pakhtakor.
The tournament is not all about the Saudi Arabian teams as it is split into geographic zones until the final, ensuring a representative from the eastern half of the continent next May.
Japan’s Urawa Reds is the current champion and Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i of South Korea lifted the trophy in 2020.
“We know that Saudi Arabian teams will provide strong opposition but the standard is rising all across Asia,” Ulsan coach Hong Myong-bo said. “We have to focus first on doing as well as we can .”
-AP
Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo has reached an agreement with Al Nassr to extend his contract by another year until June 2026, an official with the Saudi club has told AFP.
The official said the sides have agreed on the renewable extension of Ronaldo’s contract, “but it has not been signed yet. An announcement will be made over the coming days”.
Ronaldo turned 40 last week with his current contract due to end in June 2025.
The former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus star joined Al Nassr in January 2023 and has since scored 82 goals in 90 matches.
In August, Ronaldo said he would stay with Al Nassr through the end of his professional career, which may be “soon or in two or three years”.
“But it’ll most likely happen with Al Nassr, in the team that makes me happy… and where I feel good.”
The Portuguese great appeared to trade an end-of-career payday for football obscurity when he moved to Riyadh’s Al Nassr two years ago in a deal said to be worth $250 million.
But his influence became clear when he was followed by a parade of ageing superstars to the big-spending Saudi Pro League.
Saudi Arabia was then awarded the 2034 World Cup in December, the crowning glory for the oil-rich kingdom’s strategy of revamping its image through sports, tourism and culture.
When Ronaldo launched his YouTube channel in August, he gained one million subscribers in just 90 minutes and 20 million within 24 hours. He currently has 73.5 million.
Although World Cup glory has probably eluded him, unlike his Argentine rival Lionel Messi, records still dangle in front of the five-time Ballon d’Or and Champions League winner.
Despite his prodigious form as he closes in on 1,000 professional goals in official matches, Ronaldo is yet to win a Saudi or continental trophy with Al Nassr, with the Arab Club Champions Cup of 2023 his only triumph with the club.
-AFP
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SAUDI PRO LEAGUE
Ahmed Musa named among Saudi Pro League’s 10 biggest transfers before Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Al Nassr in January 2023 signalled a sea change in the transfer market.
From Karim Benzema to Neymar to N’Golo Kante and more, the top 30 transfers in the entire history of Saudi Arabian football have taken place in the two years since Ronaldo left Manchester United.
But what did the Saudi Pro League look like before the sudden influx of superstars from Europe? We’ve checked back on the Saudi Pro League’s 10 most expensive transfers prior to Ronaldo and checked in on where they’re at today.
10. Yahya Al-Shehri – €9.4million – Al-Nassr
This one is actually an internal transfer.
Al-Shehri was capped 75 times by Saudi Arabia between 2009 and 2019 and has spent almost his entire career in his home country, save for a brief loan spell at La Liga side Leganes where he made a grand total of zero appearances.
A product of Al-Ettifaq’s academy, he’d notched over a hundred appearances for his boyhood club before his big-money move to Riyadh’s Al-Nassr in 2013.
He spent eight years at Al-Nassr and won three league titles there. Nowadays he’s turning out for Al-Riyadh alongside former Championship stalwart Yoann Barbet.
9. Nicolae Stanciu – €10million – Al-Ahli
After a reported falling out with Slavia Prague manager Zdenek Scasny, Al-Ahli swooped to sign the Romania international in January 2019.
But he lasted just half a season out in Saudi Arabia before returning to Slavia Prague, by which point his old boss had conveniently departed. Financial issues were reportedly behind Al-Ahli allowing their star asset to leave so soon.
The winger spent another three seasons in the Czech capital before moving on to Chinese Super League outfit Wuhan Three Towns. He’s now back in Saudi Arabia, turning out for a Damac side coached by his Romanian compatriot Cosmin Contra.
8. Aleksandar Prijovic – €10million – Al-Ittihad
Big Mitro wasn’t the first expensive Serbian called Aleksandar to rock up in the Saudi Pro League.
You might (not) remember Prijovic struggling for opportunities for Parma, Derby County, Yeovil and Northampton back in the latter half of the noughties.
The striker enjoyed a nomadic career since those early days, with short-lived stints in Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, Poland and Greece before his €10million move to Al-Ittihad in 2019.
He notched 15 goals in 49 Saudi Pro League appearances and moved on to Australian A-League side Western United FC in 2021.
Prijovic, 34, is presumably now retired, having not had a club since he was released by Western United back in 2023.
7. Igor Coronado – €10.1million – Al-Ittihad
A Brazilian playmaker that developed his skills in MK Dons’ academy as a teenager. Yes, really.
Coronado never quite made the grade in Milton Keynes but brushed himself and kicked on with humble beginnings at non-league Banbury United in Oxfordshire. From there he went on to play in Malta with Floriana and fallen giants Palermo in Serie B.
In subsequent years, he won league titles in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, having moved from Sharjah to Al-Ittihad in 2021.
Nowadays he’s back in Brazil with Corinthians. Not a bad post-script for a kid who couldn’t get a game at MK Dons.
6. Djaniny – €10.2million – Al-Ahli
A pretty cool story, this one.
Djaniny was born and raised in Santa Cruz, Cape Verde and moved to Portugal at the age of 18 to study renewable energy.
The forward soon found an amateur club and demonstrated enough talent to get picked up by Uniao Leiria (once managed by Jose Mourinho) and Benfica’s reserve team. He even made his international debut in 2012 and went on to play 35 times for Cape Verde.
After peaking at Mexican outfit Santos Laguna, where he spent four years, Al-Ahli sanctioned a big-money move in 2018. He later spent three years with Trabzonspor, with whom he won a Turkish Super Lig title in 2021-22, and has since returned to Saudi Arabia with Al Fateh.
5. Souza – €10.2million – Al-Ahli
Before genuine footballing royalty started turning up in the Saudi Pro League over the past couple of years, it was home to a number of Brazilians you’ve likely never heard of.
Josef de Souza Dias belongs in that category, although he earned three caps for Brazil in the immediate wake of their 2014 World Cup heartbreak and represented clubs including Porto, Fenerbahce and Besiktas.
His stint in the Saudi Pro League actually came between his stints with the two big Istanbul rivals between the years of 2018 and 2020.
After a short-lived spell with a third Istanbul club – Basaksehir – the centre-back returned to his boyhood club Vasco da Gama last year.
4. Giuliano – €10.5million – Al-Nassr
Another Brazilian, attacking midfielder Giuliano (14 caps for the Selecao) joined Al-Nassr in 2018 after a career on the fringes of the European mainstream – Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Zenit Saint Petersburg and Fenerbahce among the stops.
Like Souza, he left Saudi for Istanbul Basaksehir, before going on to play over a hundred times for Corinthians.
The 34-year-old is now a free agent, having just left newly promoted Santos to make room for another ex Saudi Pro League old boy.
3. Pity Martinez – €16million – Al-Nassr
The attacking midfielder has tended to win silverware wherever he’s been, from a Copa Argentina with Huracan to a glut of trophies across two stints with River Plate and a U.S. Open Cup with Atlanta United.
But a solitary Saudi Super Cup is a relatively underwhelming return from his two-and-a-half years at Al Nassr, given the sizeable fee they paid Atlanta for his signature.
Now he’s back at River Plate, once again working under former Al-Ittihad coach Marcelo Gallardo, who got the best out of him the first time around at the Monumental.
2. Ahmed Musa – €16.5million – Al-Nassr
There’s no greater statement that things have changed in the Saudi Pro League that notorious Leicester City flop Musa was once its record signing.
At the time of writing, the €16.5million fee that Al-Nassr paid the Foxes back in 2018 only makes him the league’s 44th most expensive signing.
The former Nigeria stalwart is still only 32 years of age but he’s fallen off the footballing map in recent years. He left Al-Nassr in 2020 and is now into his third stint with Nigerian side Kano Pillars.
1. Matheus Pereira – €18million – Al-Hilal
One of the most talented players to grace the Championship in recent years, Pereira played a talismanic role in West Brom’s promotion to the Premier League in 2019-20 and was just about the only good thing about them in their miserable 2020-21 relegation campaign.
Given how well he’d done in the top flight for an otherwise limited side, the Brazilian playmaker had no shortage of suitors when the Baggies returned to the Championship.
Rather than move to another English or European side, Pereira made the surprising decision to sign for Al-Hilal – back then a bolt out of the blue.
His time with the club was short and sweet, yielding a Saudi Pro League title, a Saudi Super Cup and the Asian Champions League during his one and only full season out there.
After a loan away to UAE side Al Wahda, Pereira signed for Cruzeiro on a permanent deal in 2023 and remains with the Brazilian club today.
-Planet Football
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Neymar took part in team training and will join the Al-Hilal squad for their Asian Champions League trip to UAE Pro League club Al-Ain after recovering from a serious knee injury, the Saudi Pro League club said.
The 32-year-old Brazil forward has not played since sustaining the injury during his nation’s CONMEBOL World Cup qualifier against Uruguay in October last year.
He suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and underwent surgery in November.
Having moved to Saudi Arabia from French champions Paris St Germain for a reported fee of around 90 million euros ($97.8 million) in August last year, Neymar had only played five games before his layoff as he was struggling with muscle injuries.
The former Barcelona forward, who is Brazil’s leading scorer, missed their 2024 Copa America campaign in the United States, where they suffered a second straight quarter-final exit from a major tournament after losing to Croatia on penalties at the 2022 World Cup.
“Al-Hilal is happy to announce that Neymar will join the squad for the away trip to Al-Ain. He’s back,” the club posted on social media platform X.
“Neymar participated in team training after completing his recovery program,” Al-Hilal said in another post.
They play Al-Ain at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium on Monday.
-Reuters
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