Offer from Saudi sister club
Allan Saint-Maximin is one of Newcastle United’s most valuable players with a market value of €32m. It is extremely rare for a Premier League club that plays in the Champions League to have to sell such a player, given the financial strength in the English upper house. According to coach Eddie Howe, the “Magpies” will probably have to accept an offer from Saudi Al-Ahli SFC for the 26-year-old winger – because of financial fair play and financial sustainability (sustainability) of UEFA.
|
rumor | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
A. Saint-Maximin |
 | |||||||||
| left winger | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
“He’s in talks about a move. As part of financial fair play, we have to act or we’d be stuck this summer,” Newcastle’s winning coach told reporters of Saint-Maximin on Tuesday night. “I don’t want to lose him. The FFP forces us to do this – to a certain extent. It looks like it’s about to happen. Sometimes these things have to happen for a club to grow.”
List of stars is getting longer: top arrivals of the Saudi Pro League 2023
Al-Ahli offers Newcastle United highest earnings for Saint-Maximin since 2019
According to consistent media reports from France, promoted Al-Ahli is ready to put 25 million euros on the table for Saint-Maximin and offer the ex-Hanoverian an annual salary of between 12 and 15 million euros. The fee would be the highest Newcastle have taken since the €33.4m transfer of Ayoze Pérez (29) to Leicester City in 2019. This summer Chris Wood (31) switched to Nottingham Forest for 17 million euros, otherwise since the takeover by the Saudi state fund “PIF” – which also owns Al-Ahli – transfer income is rare.
Since 2021/22, Newcastle has piled up a transfer deficit of €356.8m, only league rivals Chelsea, Man United and Arsenal have a larger negative transfer balance. The rules of financial sustainability will be gradually introduced over a period of three years up to 2025. From then on, clubs can only invest 70 percent of what they earn in the football business in the squad. This is particularly relevant for clubs that take part in the European Cup, because UEFA can react to violations, for example with exclusions from it. Newcastle will play in the Champions League in 2023/24 and will be in Europe for the first time since the 2012/13 season. Of course, the “Magpies” want to repeat this as often as possible in the future.
Newcastle’s Howe on Saint-Maximin: Happy if deal fails
From a sporting point of view, Howe Saint-Maximin does not really want to give up. The Frenchman has had 13 goals and 21 assists in 124 competitive games for Newcastle since 2019. “He’s someone we’re happy to work with, he’s a difference player, we’ve had a really strong working relationship and it would be sad if he goes.” If the transfer didn’t go through, he would be “happy” himself – but: ” Of course, that would affect our ability to sign more players.”
Up to 70 million: All Newcastle transfers since Saudi takeover
To home page