The sports agenda is busy with these transfer news. During the transfer window, SPL has increased the cumulative value of its four clubs nearly five times.
Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal reportedly planned a $1.1 billion bid to sign French soccer superstar Kylian Mbappé – including $332 million to his club, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), and an eye-watering $775 million salary packet to the World Cup winner for just one year, Idman.biz reports according to the statistic information on CNN website.
Mbappé might have said no to the offer in July, but a month later, Neymar Jr. said yes to Al-Hilal, as the Brazil star moved from PSG for a transfer fee of around $98.5 million (€90 million) plus add-ons, according to multiple reports.
In a record-breaking transfer window, Saudi Pro League (SPL) clubs spent close to $1 billion, acquiring 94 overseas players from Europe’s major leagues – France’s Ligue 1, Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, Germany’s Bundesliga and the English Premier League – according to Deloitte.
Despite the Arab nation’s poor human rights record, Saudi Arabia’s spending spree to turn its domestic soccer league into a star-studded, bona fide competition shows the seriousness of its ambition.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman says he doesn’t “care” about the reactions.
Pressed on if he was bothered by the use of the term, MBS continued: “I don’t care. I have one percent GDP growth from sport, and I am aiming for another one and a half percent. Call it whatever you want, we’re going to get that one and a half percent.”
Saudi clubs, several of which have been taken over by the nation’s sovereign Public Investment Fund (PIF), have already attracted some of the biggest names in the sport.
During this summer transfer window, the government-controlled PIF increased the cumulative value of these four clubs nearly five times, making them the most valuable in the country, according to estimates by the sports website Transfermarkt.
Plenty of other leading stars have eagerly said yes to the SPL, notably 2022 Ballon D’Or winner Karim Benzema joining Al-Ittihad at the end of his contract with Spanish soccer giant Real Madrid.
As the European transfer window came to a close, the four PIF-owned teams have spent nearly $900 million (€835.1 million) on buying elite international players, Transfermarkt data shows, which ranked them in the top 20 clubs in the world by transfer expenditure.
Idman.biz
