The German may not be a player, but at the age of 35 he is a young coach whose logical next step would have been an engagement in his home country or in another top European league. On Friday, Jaissle joined al-Ahli in the Saudi Pro League from Austria’s serial champions Red Bull Salzburg, following the example of Steven Gerrard, the legend of Liverpool FC, who has been coaching al-Ittifak since this summer.
But more and more players follow the Saudi lure, Ronaldo made the start at the beginning of the year, and this summer the spending spree will take on new dimensions. Karim Benzema belongs more in the category of veterans choosing one last exit, but there are also players of better footballing age in the form of Sadio Mane, Firmino and N’golo Kante. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has an agenda and is working through it – the goal is also the World Cup.
Saudi Arabia invests in sports
In Saudi Arabia, large-scale investments are currently being made in sports and football. Karim Benzema is now playing in Saudi Arabia for a salary of €50m a year and Cristiano Rolando has signed for Saudi club al-Nassr FC for a salary of at least €70m a year.
The disputed country hopes – along with Egypt and Greece – to host the 2030 finals, following in Qatar’s footsteps. That is the most important sports policy goal of the crown prince and de facto ruler of the country, Mohammed bin Salman, who has just brought Formula 1 to Saudi Arabia. His and the Saudi motivation for all of this is multifaceted.
Of investments and distractions
Of course, it’s all about money and gaining importance. The state fund Public Investments Fund (PIF) is not only used to invest in their own country: the four top clubs al-Nassr, al-Ittihad, al-Hilal and al-Ahli are majority owned by the PIF, but they also have shares in the English Premier League Club Newcastle United. Saudi Arabia wants to develop and become less dependent on oil. Sports stars and events also conveniently distract from negative headlines.
As sports expert Ben Freeman from the US think tank Quincy Institute explained: “You don’t want people to think about the brutal murder of (the journalist Jamal, note) Khaschoggi or about human rights violations, you should think about sports stars.” The often-cited term “Sportswashing” refers to efforts to polish up the reputation of one’s own country through sporting events.
Lots of Saudi money for sports
A Saudi football club recently offered 300 million euros for superstar Kylian Mbappe, who turned it down. But it would have been the highest transfer fee ever paid. Saudi Arabia is trying to polish its image with lots of money for sports investments.
Ronaldo has arrived, Lionel Messi has been prevented from moving to Saudi Arabia by Major League Soccer in the US with corporate giant Apple. However, the Argentinian world champion is omnipresent as the country’s tourism ambassador. France’s superstar Kylian Mbappe from Paris Saint-Germain, which in turn is owned by Qatari investors, was rejected.
But a floor or two below that star level, more and more well-known players are now coming to Saudi Arabia, occasionally forgetting about the moral component. That former Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson played with a rainbow ribbon for the LGBTQ community and is now under contract in a country that criminalizes homosexuality is at least noteworthy.
Not only old stars follow the lure
The players are lured into the desert with a lot of money. Henderson is said to earn more than 800,000 euros a week in Saudi Arabia. According to British media, his salary would triple. In the case of Ronaldo, an annual salary of as much as 200 million euros was mentioned again and again, Mane is said to console himself with 40 million per year over a season to forget at Bayern.
His previous coach Thomas Tuchel does not yet know how the Saudi market will affect the international football market. “I don’t really have a clever answer to that question,” said the 49-year-old on Tuesday during Bayern’s Asia trip in Singapore. “It’s a very new situation, similar to when China started its league. It’s kind of a similar gold rush there now,” said Tuchel.
APA/AFP/Paul Ellis After a year to forget, Mane leaves the European stage and moves to Saudi Arabia
“It’s the next league trying to become more popular and a brand,” explained Tuchel: “You’ve convinced a lot of players, a lot of quality players – and even coaches. It’s a whole new situation. And it’s too early for me to have a clear opinion on that.” He is an observer of current developments, “a surprised observer”. He’s far from alone there.
“You are changing the market”
The Dortmund sports director Sebastian Kehl sees it similarly in an interview with the trade journal “kicker” (Monday). “It is simply not possible to explain these sums, which are paid specifically in Saudi Arabia. They are changing the market and making it even more difficult for us to act,” said the BVB official. “It’s no longer just old stars who go there, but also younger players. If this continues, football will develop in a direction that will certainly cause it great damage.”
The league wants to establish itself in world football, where it will go is not yet known. The Chinese Super League tried something similar, Marko Arnautovic knows a thing or two about it. “If they continue to work like this for five more years, the Saudi Professional League can become one of the five best leagues in the world,” said Ronaldo, not without his own purpose. The 16-a-side league, which starts the new season in August, is the highest-ranked in the Asian association. So far it has only played a subordinate role in world football, and the Asian Champions League cannot be compared to the European one. The league has an average attendance of 9,000, which should at least increase after this summer with the many new stars.