Football transfer offensive
Saudi Arabia apparently also wants to sign world-class footballers
Status: 11:14 a.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
“You have to be careful that we don’t fall even more into the abyss”
The women’s national team was eliminated in the preliminary round at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. “One forgets that the so-called small nations can also play football,” says former DFB international Jimmy Hartwig in the WELT interview.
Clubs from Saudi Arabia buy the stars of men’s football. Now a transfer offensive should also start for women. A German coach assumes that several top players will change. Including German professionals.
The German coach Monika Staab, who works in Saudi Arabia, expects that in the future prominent soccer players will also move to the desert state – even from Germany.
Saudi Arabian clubs have been causing a stir for a long time with transfers of well-known professionals such as Cristiano Ronaldo or, most recently, Sadio Mané, which often cost millions. The clubs not only wanted to be champions in men, but also in women, said Staab in Deutschlandfunk’s “Players” podcast. The 64-year-old has been building a women’s selection team in Saudi Arabia since 2021. She used to play herself and is one of the most successful coaches in the world, having worked for 1. FFC Frankfurt, among others.
Monika Staab has been a coach in Saudi Arabia since 2021. She also counts on German players who follow the lure of money
What: pa/Stephan Persch
“I don’t want to reveal too much, but there are rumors that about four or five world-class players who are also taking part in the World Cup are going to Saudi Arabia,” said Staab. She explained that there are several men’s clubs that have also taken up women’s football and are investing in European coaches to raise the quality.
“I think we will see one or the other – also German – player who is perhaps of retirement age, who goes to Saudi Arabia to play football there,” said Staab.
Premier League with eight teams
Saudi Arabia has given women more rights in recent years. Since 2018, women have been allowed to drive cars and as spectators to football games in the stadium. An eight-team women’s Premier League started last October.
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The country is repeatedly criticized for human rights violations. In Saudi Arabia, there is a particularly conservative reading of Islam that restricts women’s rights.
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