For many lovers of the beautiful game, a prominent football player’s move to the Middle East often occurs at the twilight of their career and is viewed as a chance for one last huge paycheck. Nigerian forward Odion Ighalo appears as a prime example – after a modest career in Europe, the former Watford and Manchester United striker’s labours were favoured with a big-money move to the Middle East, with his reported wages rivalling Europe’s elite players.
This claim can hardly be faulted as it is supported with evidence as far back as the late 1970s when Brazilian legend Rivelino joined Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal post his illustrious career in his hometown Brazil.
Ultimately, the Gulf region has always been seen as a lucrative haven and a final staging post for ageing stars, and Rivelino’s case wasn’t the sole example. Brazil’s 1994 World Cup winners Romario and Bebeto both came to the Middle East and provided little or no value for money or the huge wages they earned. Precisely both players made a total of eight appearances for their respective clubs Romario featuring three times and five for Bebeto. It doesn’t end there, Denilson, another Brazilian star who made the headline not only for his dribbling skills but also as one of the most expensive players in the sport while at Real Betis, played with Al Nassr for only two months in 2007. You could pretty much conclude how his spell at the ‘Yellow and Blue’ went.
With memories of occurrences like this still fresh in the minds of people, it was expected that eyebrows were going to be raised when the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo was announced in January 2023 by Al Nassr.
Ronaldo’s two-and-a-half-year contract, reportedly worth up to 200 million euros ($212 million) per year including commercial agreements, made the 38-year-old the highest-paid footballer in history, and the highest-paid athlete in the world.
For context, Ronaldo’s individual annual earnings will exceed the total staff wage bill for roughly half of the clubs in the English Premier League-staggering statistics, to put it mildly.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF)- the country’s sovereign wealth fund chaired by the kingdom’s powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman was created in 1971 for the purpose of investing funds on behalf of the Government of Saudi Arabia. The PIF haven’t stopped at just signing Ronaldo, but are also in hot pursuit of his long-standing adversary Lionel Messi, although that bidding war seems to have been won by MLS side Inter Miami.The Saudi power to pull European stars was recently made evident, on the back of the recent completion of the reigning Balon d’Or winner and Real Madrid’s captain Karim Benzema’s transfer to Al-Ittihad. The league is linked to a few more stars including Olympic Marseille’s Alexis Sanchez, Chelsea’s N’golo Kante, Crystal Palace’s Wilfred Zaha and former Spain captain Sergio Ramos.
Assessing these transfers with a nostalgic mindset, it appears reminiscent of a similar scheme a decade ago in which China sought to force its way into the global football conversation through a series of high-profile and high-money acquisitions. The Chinese’s bold plan was eventually marred by broken contracts, economic implosions and the coronavirus pandemic, which is now seemingly at an end.
So why will the Saudi Public investment fund want to go through such a risky, cash-splashing path? What exactly is in it for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and why are they keen on bringing Europe’s biggest stars to the Middle East?
Taking a quizzing gaze, we have analyzed some plausible reasons:
Diversification of commercial appeal:
Al-Nassr’s signing of Ronaldo for many is believed to be beyond footballing reasons- a marketing exercise to be precise, that enables the Kingdom to diversify its commercial appeal beyond the natural resources it is known for, given the size of the player’s individual profile.
Taking a closer look at the social media following Cristiano Ronaldo’s status brings, it’s far greater than that of any individual football club in the region. The most popular Saudi professional football club before Ronaldo’s arrival was Al Hilal with 3.6 million Instagram followers. Al Nassr, Ronaldo’s club, had an Instagram audience of 860,000 before the high-profile move. After the announcement of the Portuguese superstar, Al Nassr’s followers jumped to 14.8 million. Saud Arabia has a young population, so his arrival will attract the current and next generation, fitting as bait for brands associated with the football star. Also, the Spanish Super Cup is held in the region and will continue to do so at least until 2030. This decision of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), through Gerard Piqué’s Kosmos, has brought Spanish football to Arabia, promoting a rapprochement between countries from a sporting point of view.
More recently, Italy has joined this trend. It held the 2023 edition of the Italian Super Cup in the same stadium as Real Madrid and Barcelona did in the Spanish Super Cup, the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh.
Vision 2030:
Just as Dakar, Senegal is synonymous with Moto-Racing, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wants to augment the region’s association with football and sports in general.
It’s about changing the narrative and perception of the world about the Kingdom. ‘Vision 2030’ as popularly referred to by many, is the cornerstone of a project that encompasses a whole series of initiatives that aim to elevate Saudi Arabia from regional to international leaders, using sports as a vehicle to drive their future ambitions.
A handful of projects and competitions have been confirmed and others are still in waiting, but Saudi Arabia is making a great effort to host the best competitions in all sports at the International level. The city of Riyadh has already secured one of the most significant sporting events in the 2029 Asian Winter Games. The Gulf region is not accustomed to winter weather conditions but hosting the competition will be possible due to the Neom project, a futuristic city that will have technological advances that will turn sand into snow, doing so in a sustainable way and bringing desalinated water from the Red Sea to the mountains. In this way, the Trojena mountain range will cease to be a desert and become a ski resort with a luxury resort. Moreover, the Saudi oil company, Aramco, is a major sponsor of the Formula 1 auto-racing series.
But perhaps the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s splashiest efforts have been in golf, where it has poured billions into creating LIV Golf, the rival competition to the established tours in North America and Europe.
A potential FIFA World Cup bid:
Saudi Arabia may also be looking to take a cue from the Qatar bid, where the eventual 2022 World Cup hosts acquired more than 30 international players post-their successful World Cup bid in 2003 to attract further attention to the region ahead of the tournament.
These included French defenders Frank Leboeuf and Marcel Desailly, as well as Spain’s Pep Guardiola and Fernando Hierro, in addition to Argentina’s Gabriel Batistuta, who scored a record-breaking 25 goals in his first season with the Al-Arabi club. That same season, Qatar’s top club – Al-Sadd – signed a 100-day contract valued at $1.5 million with Brazilian legend Romario. However, the former Barcelona star did not enjoy a successful stint and failed to score in the three matches he appeared in.
With Al-Sadd’s though, Qatar recorded more successful acquisitions including Spaniard Raul, who joined in 2012 and clinched the Qatar League title in his first season.
Al-Sadd then signed a contract with Spaniard Xavi in the summer of 2015 following his triumphant spell with Barcelona. During his four seasons as a player, he won four local titles, most notably the Qatar League, which he also won again as a coach before he left in late 2021.
A bid for the 2030 World Cup remains a goal for the Kingdom and they hope that having stars like Ronaldo, Benzema, and potentially Lionel Messi could help make them win this bid.
Establishing regional dominance:
Another reason for this sudden Saudi pull into sports is the plans for the Saudi league to become the most dominant football domestic league in Asia and this coincides with the whims of the country’s leadership.
Recently it appears the football dominance wielded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia both at the club level and the National team had dwindled. Going by the recent showing of the nation at the Qatar World Cup, where they recorded a staggering win against eventual champions Argentina, a foundation is definitely there to be built on. One way this foundation can be built upon is to attract marquee names to the Saudi Professional League.
For the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and these investments, there are economic, political, and societal benefits, as for financial that is proving to be irrelevant (at least in the short-term). Ultimately we live in a world where money talks and it’s certainly dictating in their language.
