Saudi Arabia transfers: Every mad move, crazy wage and ridiculous rumour from a silly summer
The summer of 2023 was dominated by Saudi Arabia and their lovely sportswashing transfers. Take a look at all the money sloshing around for moves and wages.
The winners and losers of the Saudi transfer window have been declared but below are the cold, hard facts.
Saudi Pro League done deals
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid to Al-Ittihad, free) – three-year contract worth £172m a year (£14.3m a month; £3.3m a week)
Neymar (PSG to Al-Hilal, £86.3m) – two-year deal worth £129.4m a year (£10.8m a month; £2.3m a week)
Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City to Al-Ahli, £30m) – four-year contract worth £39m a year (£3.25m a month; £750,000 a week)
Jordan Henderson (Liverpool to Al-Ettifaq, £12m) – two-year contract worth £36m a year (£3m a month; £700,000 a week)
READ MORE: The 11 worst answers in Jordan Henderson’s execrable interview explaining his Saudi Arabia move
Sadio Mane (Bayern Munich to Al-Nassr, £24m) – three-year contract worth £34.3m a year (£2.85m a month; £650,000 a week)
N’Golo Kante (Chelsea to Al-Ittihad, free) – four-year contract worth £21.5m a year (£1.79m a month; £413,461 a week)
Fabinho (Liverpool to Al-Ittihad, £40m) – three-year contract worth £21.4m a year (£1.78m a month; £411,538 a week)
Aymeric Laporte (Manchester City to Al-Nassr) – three-year contract worth £21m a year (£1.75m a month; £403,846 a week)
Marcelo Brozovic (Inter to Al-Nassr, £15.4m) – three-year contract worth £21m a year (£1.75m a month; £403,846 a week)
Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham to Al-Hilal, £45.3m) – three-year contract worth £17.9m a year (£1.49m a month; £345,118 a week)
Franck Kessie (Barcelona to Al-Ahli, £10.8m) – three-year contract worth £17.3m a year (£1.44m a month; £331,730 a week)
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio to Al-Hilal, £34m) – three-year contract worth £17.1m a year (£1.43m a month; £328,846 a week)
Roberto Firmino (Liverpool to Al-Ahli, free) – three-year contract worth £17m a year (£1.42m a month; £326,923 a week)
Kalidou Koulibaly (Chelsea to Al-Hilal, £18m) – three-year contract worth £15.6m a year (£1.3m a month; £300,000 a week)
Malcom (Zenit to Al-Hilal, £51.4m) – four-year contract worth £15.4m a year (£1.28m a month; £296,153 a week)
Steven Gerrard (appointed as Al-Ettifaq manager) – two-year contract worth £15.2m a year (£1.26m a month; £292,307 a week)
Seko Fofana (Lens to Al-Nassr, £21.5m) – three-year contract worth £13m a year (£1.08m a month; £250,000 a week)
Otavio (Porto to Al-Nassr, £51.3m – three-year contract worth £12.8m a year (£1.07m a month; £246,388 a week)
Ruben Neves (Wolves to Al-Hilal, £47m) – three-year contract worth £12m a year (£1m a month; £230,769 a week)
Edouard Mendy (Chelsea to Al-Ahli, £16m) – three-year contract worth £12m a year (£1m a month; £230,769 a week)
Yannick Carrasco (Atletico Madrid to Al-Shabab, £12.8m) – three-year contract worth £11.1m a year (£926,195 a month; £213,737 a week)
Gabri Veiga (Celta Vigo to Al-Ahli, £34.4m) – three-year contract worth £10.8m a year (£896,093 a month; £206,790 a week)
Allan Saint-Maximin (Newcastle to Al-Ahli, £23m) – three-year contract worth £10.2m a year (£850,000 a month; £196,153 a week)
Jota (Celtic to Al-Ittihad, £25m) – three-year contract worth £10m a year (£833,333 a month; £192,307 a week)
Merih Demiral (Atalanta to Al-Ahli, £17.1m) – three-year contract worth £9.4m a year (£783,454 a month; £180,797 a week)
Yassine Bounou (Sevilla to Al-Hilal, £17.9m) – three-year contract worth £8.5m a year (£712,248 a month; £164,365 a week)
Alex Telles (Man Utd to Al-Nassr, £4m) – two-year contract worth £7m a year (£583,333 a month; £134,615 a week)
Habib Diallo (Lyon to Al-Shabab, £15.5m) – unknown contract length worth £4.94m a year (£411,666 a month; £95,000 a week)
Ciprian Tatarusanu (Milan to Abha, free) – two-year contract worth £1.55m a year (£129,166 a month; £29,807 a week)
Roger Ibanez (Roma to Al-Ahli, £24.7m) – four-year contract, unknown salary.
Luiz Felipe (Real Betis to Al-Ittihad, £21.5m) – unknown contract length and salary.
Georginio Wijnaldum (Paris Saint-Germain to Al-Ettifaq, £8m) – three-year contract, unknown salary.
Demarai Gray (Everton to Al-Ettifaq, £8m) – four-year contract, unknown salary.
Musa Barrow (Bologna to Al-Taawoun, £6.9m) – three-year contract, unknown salary.
Jack Hendry (Club Brugge to Al-Ettifaq, £6.5m) – unknown contract length and salary.
Fashion Sakala (Rangers to Al-Fayha, £4m) – unknown contract length and salary.
Andrei Girotto (Nantes to Al-Taawoun, £3.4m) – two-year contract, unknown salary.
Henry Onyekuru (Adana Demirspor to Al-Fayha, £3m) – two-year contract, unknown salary.
Assan Ceesay (Lecce to Damac, £2.3m) – three-year contract, unknown salary.
Khaled Narey (PAOK Salonika to Al-Khaleej, £1.7m) – two-year contract, unknown salary.
Marko Dugandzic (Rapid Bucuresti to Al-Tai, £1.7m) – unknown contract length and salary)
Andrei Cordea (FCSB to Al-Tai, £1.1m) – unknown contract length and salary.
Karl Toko Ekambi (Lyon to Abha, £1m) – unknown contract length and salary.
Jawad El Yamiq (Real Valladolid to Al-Wehda, £1m) – unknown contract length and salary.
Ibrahim Sehic (Konyaspor to Al-Khaleej, £500,000) – unknown contract length and salary.
Oumar Gonzalez (Ajaccio to Al-Raed, undisclosed) – two-year contract, unknown salary.
Mathias Normann (Rostov to Al-Raed, undisclosed) – unknown contract length and salary.
Moussa Dembele (Lyon to Al-Ettifaq, free) – unknown contract length and salary.
Grzegorz Krychowiak (Krasnodar to Abha, free) – unknown contract length and salary.
Francois Kamano (Lokomotiv Moscow to Abha, free) – two-year contract, unknown salary.
Georges-Kevin N’Koudou (Besiktas to Damac, free) – two-year contract, unknown salary.
Didier Ndong (Dijon to Al-Riyadh, free) – one-year contract, unknown salary.
Andre Moreira (Grasshoppers to Al-Raed, free) – unknown contract length and salary.
Matthias Jaissle (Leipzig manager, appointed by Al-Ahli) – three-year contract, unknown salary.
READ MORE: ‘We’d all take the Saudi money’ like Henderson, right? Well here’s exactly why I wouldn’t
Players who moved elsewhere
Ilkay Gundogan (to Barcelona) – wanted by Al-Hilal.
Sergio Busquets (to Inter Miami) – wanted by Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr.
Lionel Messi (to Inter Miami) – wanted by Al-Hilal.
Angel Di Maria (to Juventus) – wanted by Al-Hilal.
Willian (to Fulham) – wanted by unnamed clubs.
Samuel Umtiti (to Lille) – wanted by unnamed clubs.
Jordi Alba (to Inter Miami) – wanted by Al-Hilal.
Wilfried Zaha (to Galatasaray) – wanted by Al-Nassr.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (to Marseille) – wanted by Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahli and Al-Shabab.
Matt Doherty (to Wolves) – wanted by unnamed clubs.
Samuel Chukwueze (to Milan) – wanted by Al-Nassr.
Moussa Diaby (to Aston Villa) – wanted by Al-Nassr.
Aaron Ramsey (to Cardiff) – wanted by unnamed clubs.
Mauro Icardi (to Galatasaray) – wanted by Al-Shabab.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles (to Lyon) – wanted by Al-Taawoun and other unnamed clubs.
Yerry Mina (to Fiorentina) – wanted by unnamed clubs.
Fred (to Besiktas) – wanted by unnamed clubs.
Harry Kane (to Bayern Munich) – wanted by Al-Hilal.
Adama Traore (to Fulham) – wanted by Al-Ittihad.
Ousmane Dembele (to PSG) – wanted by Al-Nassr.
Hakim Ziyech (to Galatasaray) – wanted by Al-Nassr.
Joao Moutinho (to Braga) – wanted by Al-Ittihad.
Mohammed Kudus (to West Ham) – wanted by Al-Nassr.
Alexis Sanchez (to Inter) – wanted by unnamed clubs.
Nicolo Zaniolo (to Aston Villa) – wanted by Al-Hilal.
Romelu Lukaku (to Roma) – wanted by Al-Hilal.
Callum Hudson-Odoi (to Nottingham Forest) – wanted by unnamed clubs.
Joao Cancelo (to Barcelona) – wanted by unnamed clubs.
Joao Felix (to Barcelona) – wanted by Al-Hilal.
Clement Lenglet (to Aston Villa) – wanted by Al-Nassr.
Sofyan Amrabat (to Manchester United) – wanted by unnamed clubs.
Divock Origi (to Nottingham Forest) – wanted by unnamed clubs.
Hirving Lozano (to PSV) – wanted by unnamed clubs.
Sergio Ramos (to Sevilla) – wanted by Al-Ittihad.
Daniel Podence (to Olympiacos) – wanted by Al-Ettifaq.
Eric Bailly (to Besiktas) – wanted by Al-Nassr.
Nicolas Pepe (to Trabzonspor) – wanted by unnamed clubs.
Premier League
Gabriel (Arsenal)
After spending almost all of the first three games of the season on the bench for tactical reasons, Gabriel was subject to some well-timed Saudi interest. But his return to Arsenal’s starting line-up ended any pretence he might leave.
Thomas Partey (Arsenal)
Juventus had also been sniffing around a player who was also one of the early Saudi Arabia targets, but Mikel Arteta wanted to play the Ghanaian at right-back for a bit.
Leon Bailey (Aston Villa)
Al-Nassr had a look at one stage but Bailey remains at Villa Park.
Philippe Coutinho (Aston Villa)
It has been a while since Gerrard last signed Coutinho and the new Al-Ettifaq manager reportedly wanted to end that painful wait, but Qatar is his most likely destination.
Lucas Digne (Aston Villa)
“He’s more closer to staying here than to leave,” said Unai Emery of Digne, for whom an injury to Alex Moreno changed everything.
Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton)
A queue has already formed for Brighton’s wing wizard who can expect to be shifted on for millions in the future, but surely not to Saudi?
Thiago Silva (Chelsea)
The centre-half publicly stated his intention to see out the remainder of a Chelsea contract which expires in summer 2024, despite Football.London suggesting ‘multiple unnamed clubs’ made overtures.
READ MORE: Fans too divided to stop PIF, Qatar, private equity from conquering football’s soul
Abdoulaye Doucoure (Everton)
One of ‘up to 50 players from Europe’s big five leagues and Portugal’s top flight’ to be targeted at the start of the summer, according to ESPN, although Everton triggering a clause in his contract to keep him for another year seemingly ended those hopes.
Andros Townsend (Everton)
Burnley are no longer interested but Townsend has options in both MLS and Saudi if he fancies it. But he seems to be enjoying – and is very good at – this punditry lark.
Willian (Fulham)
Re-signing with Fulham might have ordinarily signalled that Willian was going to play for Fulham, but Tottenham know the Brazilian is hardly one to stick to his word and a double-your-money offer from Al-Shabab must have wound the Cottagers up mightily. But he’s staying.
Thiago Alcantara (Liverpool)
Inevitably lucrative offers did not quite turn the head of Thiago yet as the 32-year-old enters the final season of his Liverpool deal.
Alisson (Liverpool)
A reported target for Al-Nassr and there was a suggestion that he was ‘tempted’ by such a move; Liverpool won’t have been.
Luis Diaz (Liverpool)
With a couple of notable Liverpool players being enticed to the revolution already, Al-Hilal hoped that a £43m bid was enough for Luis Diaz. Neither Premier League club nor very good player entertained it.
Joe Gomez (Liverpool)
Al-Ittihad sought a defender all summer and Fabrizio Romano said the ‘versatile’ Gomez was ‘very high on that list’ of targets before they signed Luiz Felipe.
Mo Salah (Liverpool)
Al-Ittihad left it too late but it is surely a matter of when and not if. Saudi Arabia will not relent in their pursuit of the greatest Arab footballer in history. The only difference is that next summer Liverpool will be confronted with more than one bidder. By then their stance over selling an admittedly brilliant 32-year-old might have softened, particularly if time is actually granted to source a replacement. And it remains to be seen if the bids reach as high as the reported £215m or so. But it is definitely not the last anyone has heard of Salah’s move to the Middle East.
Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City)
‘The top of the list’ of Saudi targets for the 2024/25 season include Salah, Luka Modric and De Bruyne; it was a matter of time before the Manchester City lynchpin came on their radar.
Ederson (Manchester City)
This was never close to happening despite a report from TNT Sports Brasil.
Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
Another summer, another bunch of rumours, another about-turn and a lovely new contract for Bernardo Silva, who really might never leave Manchester City.
Kyle Walker (Manchester City)
A move to Bayern Munich was “close” according to the man himself, who has also rejected a well-remunerated break in Saudi Arabia and an emotional return to Sheffield United to stick around at the Etihad.
David de Gea (Manchester United)
With his Man Utd release finally ratified, De Gea does not seem to have too many options to contemplate beyond Al-Nassr.
Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United)
A couple of presumably rather lavish Saudi offers were not enough to persuade Fernandes to turn his back on the Man Utd captaincy.
Anthony Martial (Manchester United)
Erik ten Hag would have welcomed a lucrative and concrete Saudi offer in a forward who is now Man Utd’s second longest-serving player.
Jadon Sancho (Manchester United)
Rio Ferdinand seemed to create Saudi interest out of nothing with his reaction to the forward and Erik ten Hag’s rather public clash. There is ‘an official offer’ from An Unnamed Club.
Raphael Varane (Manchester United)
Old Trafford executives would have been less enthused if Varane was tempted east, which compatriots and Al-Ittihad teammates Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante attempted to engineer.
Jamaal Lascelles (Newcastle)
There was apparent late interest from Al-Shabab in Lascelles but Newcastle were never going to sanction the sale of their captain while they have no available defenders and are no longer able to bring any new ones in.
Jesse Lingard (Nottingham Forest)
“I’m not really surprised big names are moving out there, they’re doing big things. It’s something I’m obviously going to consider as well, I’ve not ruled that out either. It’s just got to be right for me at the end of the day.” So there.
Hugo Lloris (Spurs)
Having made his desire for new pastures known, Lloris rejected the chance to treble his current salary at Spurs, where he might well remain until January at least.
Heung-min Son (Spurs)
“Money doesn’t matter to me now, and the pride of playing football, to play in my favourite league is important,” Son said in response to Al-Ittihad’s £26m-a-year offer. Tough crowd.
Nayef Aguerd (West Ham)
Yet another defensive target for Al-Ittihad. But a reported offer of ten times his current West Ham wage mattered not when the Hammers a) were unable to sign a replacement and b) are winning the league.
Michail Antonio (West Ham)
Few could have held it against Antonio for trading in his years climbing up the English football pyramid for a couple of well-remunerated seasons with Al-Ettifaq. But it will only happen over David Moyes’ dead body.
Pablo Sarabia (Wolves)
The summer of Saudi and Wolves selling their players almost amalgamated once again but Sarabia was identified by Al-Ettifaq as a mere back-up to priority signing Demarai Gray, whose move from Everton was done on deadline day.
READ MORE: Ruben Neves giving up on CL dream for Saudi Arabia a dispiriting taste of things to come
Championship
Liam Cooper (Leeds)
Weird, right? Not when you remember that Saudi second-tier club Al Qadsiah, who were chasing Leeds captain Cooper, are managed by Robbie Fowler.
Jamie Vardy (Leicester)
It would have been amazing but Vardy rejected Al-Khaleej over some nonsense to do with not wanting to uproot his young family.
Theo Walcott (Southampton)
“There’s been some Saudi offers, but that’s not where I want to see myself playing. Nothing against the money or the league – I just feel like right now if my heart’s not into playing football, then it’s not fair on the clubs and not fair on me. I’m not going to earn myself a contract when I’m not going to be putting 100% – it just doesn’t sit pretty with me.” So he’s retiring instead.
Thank you ❤️ pic.twitter.com/A4qRFMUKr9
— Theo Walcott (@theowalcott) August 18, 2023
La Liga
Rodrigo De Paul (Atletico Madrid)
Al-Ahli thought they could land their man with a €32m bid but they did not account for De Paul himself, World Cup winner that he is, turning down the move.
Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid)
Despite his representatives meeting with a delegation from Al-Nassr, Griezmann is loyal to the Atleti cause.
Marcos Llorente (Atletico Madrid)
Having never played for a club outside the Spanish capital, Llorente was nevertheless close to a £20m move to Al-Ahli. It was somehow not the only Liverpool and dog-related Saudi transfer of the summer.
Alvaro Morata (Atletico Madrid)
The offer of €50m a year to play for Al-Taawoun was not enough to override either Morata’s love for Atletico Madrid or the player’s apparent concerns over the culture shift, and an approach from Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq didn’t sway things either.
Saul Niguez (Atletico Madrid)
Another club hoping to dump a huge salary elsewhere, Atletico Madrid might have pushed the former Chelsea midfielder towards Al-Nassr but Saul is still there.
Stefan Savic (Atletico Madrid)
Neither Savic nor Atletico have a particular desire to part but an apparent €14m offer from Al-Shabab for a 32-year-old with 12 months remaining on a contract that would be multiplied a few times was bound to have both parties thinking.
Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona)
Appeared on a few radars incapable of independent or original thought but is not quite done bullying European defences just yet.
Raphinha (Barcelona)
Ambitious a move as it was to target a 26-year-old with four years left on his contract with the Spanish champions who signed him for £50m 12 months ago, the Saudis were given no reason to rein in their aspirations. But Raphinha was just out of reach.
Iago Aspas (Celta Vigo)
Absolutely all of the possible time in the world for, as Spanish journalist Aaron Dominguez put it, delegations being sent from Saudi Arabia to procure corner specialist Aspas. Alas, to no avail.
Radamel Falcao (Rayo Vallecano)
A lack of knees did little to diminish the stature of a player with eight goals in his last two seasons.
David Alaba (Real Madrid)
A late salary offer of ‘more than €20m’ – the Franck Kessie/Sergej Milinkovic-Savic/Roberto Firmino ballpark – was knocked back by Alaba.
Eden Hazard (Real Madrid)
Long before it become apparent neither Hazard nor Real Madrid intended to extend their unhappy union, interest from the Pro League was quite inevitably reported in a free agent who probably has a straight choice between retirement and, well, incredibly lucrative semi-retirement.
Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid)
Transfer journalist Rudy Galetti suggested that ‘talks already ongoing to understand the margins of negotiation’ with Vinicius Junior, one of the main Saudi targets for next season.
Luka Modric (Real Madrid)
The speculation was allowed to simmer for a fair while before Modric rejected a reported €200m-a-year deal.
Papu Gomez (Sevilla)
The 35-year-old World Cup winner started two games in Qatar and would be forgiven for having his head turned by a lucrative offer from Damac. The free agent could still take it.
Adnan Januzaj (Sevilla)
The Belgian has played 125 minutes for Sevilla since joining on a four-year contract last summer and has no hope of breaking into Jose Luis Mendilibar’s first team. A winter loan at Istanbul Basaksehir offered some respite but Al-Tai promised a more permanent solution that was not taken for whatever reason.
Karim Rekik (Sevilla)
A move to Al-Ettifaq was in the closing stages but Fabrizio Romano has revealed ‘serious issues’ which mean the move ‘could really collapse’. And it really did.
Bundesliga
Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich)
Three-year Saudi offers on €45m and €65m net were rejected by Coman, who clearly doesn’t want to spoil his phenomenal record of always winning league titles.
Ko Itakura (Borussia Monchengladbach)
Not the first choice of Al-Nassr as their search for a defender took in Sergio Ramos and Marquinhos before moving onto Laporte, but former Manchester City cheat code example Itakura waited patiently for his turn.
Serie A
Francesco Acerbi (Inter)
With the Champions League final in the rear-view mirror, the 35-year-old centre-half had a proposition to pore over and turn down.
Paul Pogba (Juventus)
The Saudi pundit equivalent to Graeme Souness would be delighted with this one; Pogba is wanted as a marquee signing for the league next summer.
Alex Sandro (Juventus)
Juventus are desperate enough to shift some weight off their wage bill that they would have been happy to waive a transfer fee if Alex Sandro accepted a €30m two-year Saudi proposal.
Luis Alberto (Lazio)
Some late vindication for the Liverpool transfer committee as the former floppy Red almost joined Al-Nassr after rejuvenating his career at Lazio.
Ciro Immobile (Lazio)
A £13m-per-year wage was reportedly rejected by a player who has finally realised he should never leave Serie A.
Olivier Giroud (Milan)
The Chinese Super League never tempted Giroud and Saudi interest received similarly short shrift.
Victor Osimhen (Napoli)
An apparent ‘monster’ offer of £171m was made for Osimhen but Napoli would quite like him to sign a new contract, even if a wage approaching £1m a week to move to Al-Hilal was bound to turn heads.
Mario Rui (Napoli)
Ronaldo would quite like a few more pals to join him in the Middle East, and the six games he has played together for Portugal with Mario Rui made the Napoli defender a prime candidate.
Piotr Zielinski (Napoli)
Not content with tempting Milinkovic-Savic east, it was said that a player Lazio explored as his replacement, Zielinski, a title-winner with Napoli no less, was in the sights of Al-Ahli. But no.
Leonardo Spinazzola (Roma)
A phenomenal Euro 2020 is finally paying off for a player Jose Mourinho kept away from Al-Shabab’s clutches.
Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo)
Despite the Italy international being inexorably tied to Sassuolo, there was interest from Al-Nassr.
Serie B
Gianluigi Buffon (Parma)
The bloke is 45 and had an offer worth £25m a year on the table but he knew it would be a monumental shame to ruin that palindromic career path so he retired instead.
Jonathan David (Lille)
This summer’s striker merry-go-round did not feature enough speculation over David, perhaps because Lille would quite reasonably demand at least €60m for the Al-Hilal target.
Rayan Cherki (Lyon)
Difficult as it will be to prise the teenage phenomenon from Lyon – especially without Chelsea noticing someone signing a brilliant young talent from Ligue Un – Al-Nassr were willing to give it a shot.
Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon)
“The Saudis want everything. They want my best player at Lyon,” lamented president John Textor, who must have been thrilled to learn Lacazette rejected any and all offers in his services off the back of a 31-goal season.
Chancel Mbemba (Marseille)
Fair play to the former Newcastle man, who embraced Saudi interest in the best way possible: by asking for so much money that talks broke down.
Gelson Martins (Monaco)
After making 15 appearances last season, Martins is yet to emerge for even a single Monaco matchday squad so far in 2023/24. Al-Khaleej tried and failed to relieve him of that boredom.
Jean-Clair Todibo (Nice)
Man Utd were looking at Todibo as an option to replace Harry Maguire, but the 23-year-old centre-half was also on the Al-Ittihad shortlist.
Julian Draxler (Paris Saint-Germain)
Al-Fateh wanted the World Cup winner and perennial Arsenal target who spent last season on loan at Benfica and has no place at the Parc des Princes.
Marquinhos (Paris Saint-Germain)
Neither PSG nor their captain seemed overly bothered about interest from Al-Nassr.
Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain)
Al-Hilal made a truly mind-bending offer to Mbappe, but he turned down the chance to earn enough money for a couple of big food shops before joining Real in 2024.
Converted into sterling that's £604.7m over one year or…
• £50.39m a month
• £11.63m a week
• £1.65m a day
• £69,034 an hour
• £1,150 a minute
• £19.17 a second— Football365 (@F365) July 24, 2023
Keylor Navas (Paris Saint-Germain)
Predictable but no. That PSG bench is far too warm.
Marco Verratti (Paris Saint-Germain)
It was back in May when French journalist Abdellah Boulma suggested €60m a year was being nudged towards Verratti by Al-Hilal. It never did happen.
Liga NOS
Pepe (Porto)
Back in January, Marca revealed that Ronaldo ‘would like to surround himself with some of his friends’, with long-time colleague Pepe chief among his preferred comforters.
Mehdi Taremi (Porto)
An annual salary offer of €35m was about as effective as interest from Everton in extracting Taremi from Porto.
Scottish Premiership
Reo Hatate (Celtic)
In the words of his own agent: “Reo is still in Europe. There is no chance of a move to the Saudi League.”
Alfredo Morelos (Rangers)
There were ‘various options’ in Saudi Arabia which free agent Morelos could have taken after his Rangers release, but Brazilian side Santos won the race.
James Tavernier (Rangers)
They really are targeting all the biggest players. Transfer expert Dean Jones predicted back at the start of the summer that “we could be looking at 40 players from across Europe suddenly being part of their league,” including the Rangers captain.
The managers
Jose Mourinho
It does feel like the next logical step in quite the career path for Mourinho, who was offered £100m to manage the Saudi Arabia national team for two seasons before ‘lucrative’ deals were put in front of him to psychologically destroy one of the leading clubs; both were rejected.
Massimiliano Allegri
A €20m salary over two years has not tempted Al-legri to take over Al-Hilal.
Marco Silva
Silva has rejected a bucketload of Al-Hilal cash to stay on at Craven Cottage.
Julen Lopetegui
With his separation from Wolves finally secured, Lopetegui might revisit any Saudi offers that were previously put on the table.
Rafael Benitez
Turned down Saudi approaches to return to La Liga as manager of Celta Vigo.
Maurizio Sarri
The Italian “received a few offers” but “it’s pointless talking about money” while he’s doing well enough for himself at Lazio.
Philippe Clement
Turned Al-Shabab down due to family reasons.
Christophe Galtier
Speculation linking him with Al-Shabab went quiet. Might not be a coincidence that Galtier will stand trial in December over allegedly making racist remarks about his players while manager of Nice.
Oliver Glasner
Two offers have been rejected by the free agent after his Eintracht Frankfurt exit. Both from Al-Shabab, natch.
Lucien Favre
Out of work since being sacked by Nice in January, Favre is keeping his options open at the minute. Al-Shabab?
Brendan Rodgers
“I spoke to a few clubs once I’d left Leicester, I spoke to a team in Saudi, but it just didn’t feel right,” said the returning Celtic manager. That would have been glorious. And he would have been able to ignore the “morality officers”.
Diego Simeone
“I did not hesitate with the offer from Saudi Arabia, not even if they increase it. I’m happy at Atletico,” said the Argentinean. When you’re already the highest-paid manager in the world…
John Terry
The most predictable of all the Saudi rumours. “I’m done from a managerial point of view,” Terry said in April. “The only job I’d kind of come out of retirement for would be the Chelsea job.” That and Al-Shabab, obviously. He absolutely lives for the project up there.
