The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

Hello, good afternoon sports fans, it’s me Ayyaz Malik aka The Sports Buff. Sports fans, I hope you’re well, looking after yourselves and are in good health.

We need to talk about an issue that’s important to me in the world of sport and that’s football. To be more precise it’s football transfers where players are going to the Saudi League.

In the past week, maybe two weeks the world of football transfers has turned on its head. First Karim Benzema, the reigning Balon D’or winner moves to Al-Ittihad and then became the domino effect.

The Portuguese captain Ronaldo said as much when he joined the league in what was seen as a massive coupe for Al-Nassr. Ngolo Kante, Benzema, Ruben Neves, Hakim Ziyech and Eduoard Mendy are just a handful of players that have moved to the Saudi Pro League or are soon to be moving to the Middle East.

The narrative like with the MLS and Qatar for example is that players are moving there for one last big pay day. In the example of former Porto captain Neves, he at 26, arguably still has his best years ahead of him.

Ruben Neves raised eyebrows when he chose to sign for Al-Hilal, ending speculation he was to join Catalan giants Barcelona. If one looks further into this then they will realise that Barcelona wanted to sign the player.

Spanish giants Barcelona appeared to drag their feet concluding a deal, even though the player wanted to join, but Al-Hilal decisively swooped in and got their man.

The massive influx of European-based players reminds me of when the MLS became popular after David Beckham joined and when the Chinese Super League became an attractive destination for players who were in it for a quick buck.

In life, if you or I were given the chance to get that quick buck, we would take it, I know I would. So people criticising players for their choice is not fair. In the case of Ziyech, Kante, Benzema and Mendy it can be argued there are reasons outside of football why playing in Saudi Arabia can be appealing.

The reason? Religious reasons, if that’s the case no one can begrudge them of that. What’s left for the Saudi League to prove is the longevity element. The Chinese Super League and MLS have had these challenges and to a point, struggled to overcome them.

How the Saudi Arabian Pro League will wish to not follow the footsteps of China and the USA.

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