At this point of the current off-season transfer window, I would undoubtedly be remiss not to mention the Saudi Pro League.
The Saudi league first rose to international attention following Al-Nassr's signing Portuguese legend Cristiano Ronaldo in January. At that point, most people (myself included) paid the league no further mind, assuming that Ronaldo just happened to choose Saudi Arabia for one final major payday before the end of his career; although he was the first big name to choose Saudi Arabia, countless other footballers over the years had gone to lesser yet well-paying leagues to finish their respective careers.
However, as has been shown by the ongoing transfer window, the Saudi Pro League has emerged as a genuine force with which to be reckoned. Multiple big-name players have departed Europe to join a Saudi club and claim an enormous pay cheque in the twilight of their careers. One notable exception is Sergej Milinković-Savić; earlier this week, the Serbian midfielder left Lazio for Al Hilal after an eight-year stint at the Roman club despite still being in his prime. Al Hilal paid €42 million to sign Milinković-Savić.
There are several points which I could address with regard to the Saudi Pro League; I will do so accordingly in the following paragraphs.
The first and most obvious point of discussion is the future of the league. Despite the overwhelming amount of money at its disposal, I do not see it ever eclipsing Europe's major football leagues at the top of global club football's hierarchy. More than likely, the vast majority of the players who will leave top European leagues for Saudi Arabia will be similar to Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and N'Golo Kanté - players close to the end of their careers, though the occasional big name in his prime might be swayed to come due to the outsized salaries awaiting him.
Think back to the days when the Chinese Super League was throwing around major money to lure elite footballers to China. This never materialized; as has so far been the case in Saudi Arabia, the majority of players who made the trip of thousands of kilometres east were either players in their sunset years or those struggling to get regular playing time at their European clubs. Now, I am fairly certain that the Saudi Pro League will have far more staying power than its Chinese counterpart because the Chinese Super League's money-spinning ways were punctured by the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns in China - the toughest in the world. The Saudi Pro League will not have that additional hurdle to overcome; that being said, this would still not automatically turn it into a genuinely elite football league.
Another key point relates to Newcastle United. The Tyneside club's owners are Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) who also own four Saudi Pro League clubs. As a result of this arrangement, it is likely that on several occasions over the coming seasons, the Magpies will receive one or more players from the Saudi league - likely on loan deals. As a club which has leveraged its newfound wealth to become a bona fide contender for Champions League qualification on an annual basis, bringing these players to St. James' Park (even if only on loan) could just be the boost the club needs to get a leg up over direct rivals.
The final point I will address is the most controversial of all: the use of ownership of a sports team as a form of image rehabilitation, more popularly known as "sportswashing". While it is true that in many ways, the Saudi Pro League is indeed an example of sportswashing, the reality is that sportswashing in football has an extensive history. Even before the current Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain teams, there have been examples like Chelsea under Roman Abramovich, the CCCP-backed Dynamo Kyiv and CSKA Moscow, the Franco-backed Real Madrid, and countless others.
Sportswashing has even happened on a micro level; consider the example of Herbert Diess, the Volkswagen Group CEO who presided over the automotive company's infamous emissions scandal. Diess is a partial owner of Bayern Munich. To sum it up, while I do not condone sportswashing, the fact is that it is and always has been a part of football and will unfortunately continue to be so in the future. The status of the Saudi Pro League does not change that fact one iota.
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