When Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal reportedly planned a $1.1 billion bid to sign French soccer superstar Kylian Mbappé – including $332 million to his club, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), and an eye-watering $775 million salary packet to the World Cup winner for just one year – it was slammed by critics as sports washing.
Mbappé might have said no to the offer in July, but a month later, Neymar Jr. said yes to Al-Hilal, as the Brazil star moved from PSG for a transfer fee of around $98.5 million (€90 million) plus add-ons, according to multiple reports.
In a record-breaking transfer window, Saudi Pro League (SPL) clubs spent close to $1 billion, acquiring 94 overseas players from Europe’s major leagues – France’s Ligue 1, Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, Germany’s Bundesliga and the English Premier League – according to Deloitte.
Despite the Arab nation’s poor human rights record, Saudi Arabia’s spending spree to turn its domestic soccer league into a star-studded, bona fide competition shows the seriousness of its ambition.
Saudi clubs, several of which have been taken over by the nation’s sovereign Public Investment Fund (PIF), have already attracted some of the biggest names in the sport.
By attracting some of the world’s biggest stars to the Gulf states, the SPL wants “to drive competitiveness on and off the pitch,” though it’s keen to emphasize that these overseas players will help develop “young Saudi talent.”
During this summer transfer window, the government-controlled PIF increased the cumulative value of these four clubs nearly five times, making them the most valuable in the country, according to estimates by the sports website Transfermarkt.
Plenty of other leading stars have eagerly said yes to the SPL, notably 2022 Ballon D’Or winner Karim Benzema joining Al-Ittihad at the end of his contract with Spanish soccer giant Real Madrid.
As the European transfer window came to a close, the four PIF-owned teams have spent nearly $900 million (€835.1 million) on buying elite international players, Transfermarkt data shows, which ranked them in the top 20 clubs in the world by transfer expenditure, alongside soccer giants from England, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.
Al Hilal alone paid more than $378 million (€353 million), more than PSG and Arsenal, making it the second-largest spender this year.
The newly acquired players join five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, who has a two-year contract with Al-Nassr where he will earn a staggering estimated $200 million a year, according to Saudi state-owned media, currently making him the world’s highest paid soccer player.
As of today, 21 of the most expensive soccer players in Saudi Arabia by transfer fees – all international stars – play for one of the PIF-owned clubs.
Despite the financial outlay, the SPL is remaining deliberately tight-lipped about the specifics of its financial gamble, with chief operating officer Carlo Nohra confirming to CNN Sport that it was “not in [the SPL’s] competitive advantage” to report the salaries offered to players and coaches.
The PIF has $777 billion in assets under management, according to its most recent filing, with ambitions to top $1 trillion within a few years. In 2021, it acquired English soccer club Newcastle United, before focusing on investments at home. The club is now also among top spenders on players.