With the 1994 World Cup, which the United States hosted, the country launched a plan to professionalize the sport, in addition to creating its own stadiums to practice it (previously, clubs used to host American football or baseball stadiums, that were not the most appropriate) and a financing plan for the clubs.
The Major League Soccer (MLS for its acronym) has seen the drift of sports in spectacle since then, a show far from tradition that puts it anyway on the world map of soccer, as also happens, in a mirror, with the leagues. Arabs after the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Sheikhs, money and stars.
The case of Arabia (as a geographical region, not only Saudi Arabia but Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, etc) is much more current and the first part of the story does not take place in the Middle East, but in Europe. At the beginning of this century, many clubs in the main European leagues were put up for sale in search of foreign investors, who quickly became interested and bought percentages of them, or in some cases, even the entire club.
The clearest examples have been with the Russian Román Abrámovich, who owned Chelsea in London for 20 years, years that were the institution’s most successful and had the best players in the world among its ranks.
And then the famous “Arab sheikhs” arrived, including Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, owner of the City Group, which brings together almost all the clubs in the world that have “City” in their name, such as Manchester City ( the first and most important of the group), as well as New York City or Montevideo City Torque among others.
Another important businessman is Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, owner of Paris Saint Germain, and who promoted the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the country where he was born and forged his wealth. But, without a doubt, the largest investment for the purchase of a club occurred in 2022, when Newcastle United, an English team from the city of the same name, was bought by Mohammed bin Salman, heir to the throne of Saudi Arabia, who paid 413 million euros.
Since then, the dream of local Arab leagues to become competitive has grown, accompanied by the interest of the West in the luxurious cities of the region, such as Doha or Dubai among others. The 2022 World Cup in Qatar sealed that process.
Gold Rush
Since the 2011 season, the budget of many clubs in the region increased and they decided to look abroad, bringing players for their teams or legendary coaches, with the aim of making a more attractive and interesting league.
The first examples of this were Diego Maradona, who led two clubs in the United Arab Emirates, Al-Wasl and Al-Fujairah, or Xavi Hernandez, a historic player from Spain and Messi’s teammate at Barcelona, who led Al-Sadd from Qatar for several years. Argentina has been one of the countries that contributed the most players and coaches to Arabia, among which we can highlight Ramon Diaz, legend of River; Miguel Angel Russo, former DT of Boca; and players like Ramiro Funes Mori or Emiliano Vecchio.
However, the big money and the great legends arrived in the region only recently, more precisely in the last year and a half when, in 2022, the Saudi Public Investment Fund took control of the 4 most important clubs in the country: Al-Ahli (31 titles), Al-Ittihad (35 titles), Al-Hilal (66 titles) and Al-Nassr (28 titles). }
This meant a 180-degree turn in national football, where several teams expressed their discontent, alleging that over time the difference in squads between these four and the rest would be abysmal, but the Federation did not echo these sayings, the objective was Of course: make the Saudi Arabian League one of the most important in the world.
The first big move was the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo at Al Nassr for 3 years, until 2025, with a salary of two hundred (200) million euros per year. To put it in perspective; per week it is almost four million euros, per day it is 555,555 euros, per hour 23,150 euros, per minute 386 euros and per second 6.50 euros, incredible figures that seek to be the main reason for the exodus to Arabia, oil money.
After the arrival of the Portuguese legend, the others began to come: Roberto Firmino left Liverpool to join Al-Ahli, N’Golo Kante left Stamford Bridge (Chelsea’s stadium) to join Al-Ittihad. Last month the big signings ended up at Riyadh Airport: first Karim Benzema. Real Madrid star and Ballon d’Or player joined Al-Ittihad for 3 years with a salary of 100 million euros a year.
Finally, the brand new incorporation of Al-Hilal: Neymar Junior, directly from Paris Saint Germain. He signs for two years with a salary of 100 million euros per year, but the most curious thing is the extras in the contract: a private plane for him, a mansion with staff included at his disposal, in addition to receiving 80,000 euros for each victory of the team.
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