We’ve seen this before, a decade ago, when Didier Drogba left Chelsea after winning them a first European Champions League in May 2012. He went to Shanghai, where Nicolas Anelka, his one-time Chelsea teammate, had moved six months earlier. At the time, Drogba’s salary was rumoured to be an eye-watering $16m a year, though much of his brief stint in China was spent fighting with the club about pending or lapsed payments. Half a decade later, Carlos Tevez, once of Boca Juniors, Manchester United, Man City and Juventus, followed the same path. He managed all of 16 appearances for Shanghai, while being paid a reported $41m.
The Chinese media was scathing of Tevez, who was clearly out of shape and disinterested, and who would later describe his time in the Chinese Super League as a ‘holiday’. The one thing each of those players had in common was that they were looking for one last big paycheck. Having won the big prizes, they had no worlds left to conquer when it came to club football. Taking top dollar while allegedly promoting the game in China made perfect sense.
But what Saudi Arabia have pulled off is on an altogether different scale. The announcement nearly a fortnight ago that the Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund would take control of four of the country’s biggest clubs – Al-Ittihad, Al-Nassr, Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal – is just the tip of the iceberg.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who was unable to take Al-Nassr to the title in his first season there, is reportedly being paid $213m a year. Karim Benzema, who left Real Madrid to move to Al-Ittihad, the current champions, will also be paid in the region of $200m a year for his troubles. That figure includes salary, image rights and various commercial deals to promote Saudi Arabia. N’Golo Kante, who will be Benzema’s teammate, will also earn more than $100m a year.
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While you could argue that Ronaldo was very much on the downward slope by the time he left Europe, the same is not true of Benzema and Kante. Real wanted Benzema to stay one more season, and as recently as March, he was instrumental in Real’s 5-2 thrashing of Liverpool at Fortress Anfield. Kante, despite his many injury problems over recent seasons, was also coveted by several top European clubs.
Neither man had anything left to prove though. Like Ronaldo, they have won multiple league titles – Kante was central to Leicester City winning the EPL in 2015-16, the biggest upset in football history – and the Champions League. With Benzema also having won the Ballon d’Or, there were no boxes left to tick.
So, is the Saudi Pro League now a direct competitor for the top European leagues? Much as the PR spin might want you to believe it, the answer is a resounding no. You only have to look at the two best transfers of the European transfer window so far to see that. Jude Bellingham, a certain Ballon d’Or winner in the future, has just been given the No.5 shirt that Zinedine Zidane used to wear at Real Madrid. He will earn close to $22m a season at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Had he been tempted by Saudi money, he could have asked for 15 times that and got it. If Ronaldo and Benzema represent Real’s illustrious past, Bellingham is very much the future. But there was never even the slightest chance of him following the money trail to the Middle East. Bellingham, like every young footballer, knows that you need to perform in the top European leagues and the European Champions League to become a legend. No number of big cheques will give you that status.
The same is true of Alexis MacAllister, who won the World Cup with Argentina last December. MacAllister is already the bargain of the season, having cost Liverpool just GBP 35m, a third of what Chelsea paid for Enzo Fernandez, his Argentina teammate. What’s more, MacAllister is already a proven EPL performer, having inspired a brilliant Brighton side to their best-ever league finish and European qualification.
MacAllister will make less than $10m a year at Liverpool. Again, he could have put a blank cheque in front of those four Saudi clubs and they would have filled in whatever number he asked for. Instead, he chose a club which has won six European Cups/Champions Leagues and 19 league titles. Some things trump money. They always will.