8 months ago, Cristiano Ronaldo offered himself a golden bridge by signing at Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia. From now on, the Saudi championship has become a real El Dorado for footballers, not for the sporting aspect, but for the financial aspect. While since January, the chain RMC Sports (but also his Twitch channel) exclusively broadcast all of Cristiano Ronaldo’s matches, there is no broadcast agreement for the Saudi championship for the year 2023/2024 in France. But with all the signings that follow (Benzema, Kanté, Mané, Fabinho, Brozovic …), the Saudi championship will become attractive and broadcasters should seek to position themselves in the coming weeks.
Which stars have signed in Saudi Arabia?
In Al-Nassr, apart from Cristiano Ronaldo, Marcelo Brozovic, Seko Fofana, Alex Telles and Sadio Mane have signed. Karim Benzema, free from any contract, signed free for three years with Al-Ittihad at the beginning of June before seeing N’Golo Kante joining him and then former Liverpool player Fabinho. Milinkovic-Savic signed for three years with Al-Hilal for almost 50 million euros for the transfer, while Ruben Neves also signed with Al-Hilal for three seasons. Playing in the Premier League last season, Frenchman Allan Saint-Maximin, also 26, signed for three years with Al-Ahli, as did Brazilian international Roberto Firmino who signed up to Al-Ahli until 2026. . Mahrez, Edouard Mendy and Kalidou Koulibaly complete this totally crazy transfer window.
For Grégoire Akcelrod, in charge of the club’s pre-season and the development of the Saudi structure in Europe and interviewed by the 10 sport, this is only the beginning. “Squads are limited to 8 Europeans. I sincerely believe that Saudi Arabia can quickly become the NBA of football. No one realizes what is happening… When you watch a crazy game, for many of us, it’s to see the great players. And more and more great players are going to Saudi Arabia. It’s going to become more and more difficult for European clubs to renew themselves and be competitive. And today today it is increasingly true, all the big players are considering Saudi Arabia