Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Al Nassr in January 2023
signalled a sea change in the transfer market.
From Karim Benzema to Neymar to N’Golo Kante and more,
the top 30 transfers in the entire history of Saudi Arabian football have taken
place in the two years since Ronaldo left Manchester United.
But what did the Saudi Pro League look like before the
sudden influx of superstars from Europe? We’ve checked back on the Saudi Pro
League’s 10 most expensive transfers prior to Ronaldo and checked in on where
they’re at today.
10. Yahya Al-Shehri – €9.4million –
Al-Nassr
This one is actually an internal transfer.
Al-Shehri was capped 75 times by Saudi Arabia between
2009 and 2019 and has spent almost his entire career in his home country, save
for a brief loan spell at La Liga side Leganes where he made a grand total of
zero appearances.
A product of Al-Ettifaq’s academy, he’d notched
over a hundred appearances for his boyhood club before his big-money move to
Riyadh’s Al-Nassr in 2013.
He spent eight years at Al-Nassr and won three league
titles there. Nowadays he’s turning out for Al-Riyadh alongside former
Championship stalwart Yoann Barbet.
9. Nicolae Stanciu – €10million – Al-Ahli
After a reported falling out with Slavia Prague
manager Zdenek Scasny, Al-Ahli swooped to sign the Romania international in
January 2019.
But he lasted just half a season out in Saudi Arabia
before returning to Slavia Prague, by which point his old boss had
conveniently departed. Financial issues were reportedly behind Al-Ahli
allowing their star asset to leave so soon.
The winger spent another three seasons in the Czech
capital before moving on to Chinese Super League outfit Wuhan Three Towns.
He’s now back in Saudi Arabia, turning out for a Damac side coached by his
Romanian compatriot Cosmin Contra.
8. Aleksandar Prijovic – €10million –
Al-Ittihad
Big Mitro wasn’t the first expensive Serbian
called Aleksandar to rock up in the Saudi Pro League.
You might (not) remember Prijovic struggling for
opportunities for Parma, Derby County, Yeovil and Northampton back in the
latter half of the noughties.
The striker enjoyed a nomadic career since those early
days, with short-lived stints in Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, Poland and Greece
before his €10million move to Al-Ittihad in 2019.
He notched 15 goals in 49 Saudi Pro League appearances
and moved on to Australian A-League side Western United FC in 2021.
Prijovic, 34, is presumably now retired, having not
had a club since he was released by Western United back in 2023.
7. Igor Coronado – €10.1million –
Al-Ittihad
A Brazilian playmaker that developed his skills in MK
Dons’ academy as a teenager. Yes, really.
Coronado never quite made the grade in Milton Keynes
but brushed himself and kicked on with humble beginnings at
non-league Banbury United in Oxfordshire. From there he went on to play in
Malta with Floriana and fallen giants Palermo in Serie B.
In subsequent years, he won league titles in the
United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, having moved from Sharjah to Al-Ittihad
in 2021.
Nowadays he’s back in Brazil with Corinthians. Not a
bad post-script for a kid who couldn’t get a game at MK Dons.
6. Djaniny – €10.2million – Al-Ahli
A pretty cool story, this one.
Djaniny was born and raised in Santa Cruz, Cape Verde
and moved to Portugal at the age of 18 to study renewable energy.
The forward soon found an amateur club and
demonstrated enough talent to get picked up by Uniao Leiria (once managed
by Jose Mourinho) and Benfica’s reserve team. He even made his international
debut in 2012 and went on to play 35 times for Cape Verde.
After peaking at Mexican outfit Santos Laguna,
where he spent four years, Al-Ahli sanctioned a big-money move in 2018. He
later spent three years with Trabzonspor, with whom he won a Turkish Super Lig
title in 2021-22, and has since returned to Saudi Arabia with Al Fateh.
5. Souza – €10.2million –
Al-Ahli
Before genuine footballing royalty started turning up
in the Saudi Pro League over the past couple of years, it was home to a number
of Brazilians you’ve likely never heard of.
Josef de Souza Dias belongs in that category, although
he earned three caps for Brazil in the immediate wake of their 2014 World Cup
heartbreak and represented clubs including Porto, Fenerbahce and Besiktas.
His stint in the Saudi Pro League actually came
between his stints with the two big Istanbul rivals between the years of 2018
and 2020.
After a short-lived spell with a third Istanbul club –
Basaksehir – the centre-back returned to his boyhood club Vasco da Gama last
year.
4. Giuliano – €10.5million –
Al-Nassr
Another Brazilian, attacking midfielder Giuliano (14
caps for the Selecao) joined Al-Nassr in 2018 after a career on the fringes of
the European mainstream – Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Zenit Saint Petersburg and
Fenerbahce among the stops.
Like Souza, he left Saudi for Istanbul
Basaksehir, before going on to play over a hundred times for Corinthians.
The 34-year-old is now a free agent, having just left
newly promoted Santos to make room for another ex Saudi Pro League old boy.
3. Pity Martinez – €16million –
Al-Nassr
The attacking midfielder has tended to win silverware
wherever he’s been, from a Copa Argentina with Huracan to a glut of trophies
across two stints with River Plate and a U.S. Open Cup with Atlanta United.
But a solitary Saudi Super Cup is a relatively
underwhelming return from his two-and-a-half years at Al Nassr, given the
sizeable fee they paid Atlanta for his signature.
Now he’s back at River Plate, once again working under
former Al-Ittihad coach Marcelo Gallardo, who got the best out of him the first
time around at the Monumental.
2. Ahmed Musa – €16.5million –
Al-Nassr
There’s no greater statement that things have changed
in the Saudi Pro League that notorious Leicester City flop Musa was once its
record signing.
At the time of writing, the €16.5million fee that
Al-Nassr paid the Foxes back in 2018 only makes him the league’s 44th most
expensive signing.
The former Nigeria stalwart is still only 32 years of
age but he’s fallen off the footballing map in recent years. He left Al-Nassr
in 2020 and is now into his third stint with Nigerian side Kano Pillars.
1. Matheus Pereira – €18million
– Al-Hilal
One of the most talented players to grace the
Championship in recent years, Pereira played a talismanic role in West
Brom’s promotion to the Premier League in 2019-20 and was just about the only
good thing about them in their miserable 2020-21 relegation campaign.
Given how well he’d done in the top flight for an
otherwise limited side, the Brazilian playmaker had no shortage of suitors when
the Baggies returned to the Championship.
Rather than move to another English or European side,
Pereira made the surprising decision to sign for Al-Hilal – back then a bolt
out of the blue.
His time with the club was short and sweet, yielding a
Saudi Pro League title, a Saudi Super Cup and the Asian Champions League during
his one and only full season out there.
After a loan away to UAE side Al Wahda, Pereira signed
for Cruzeiro on a permanent deal in 2023 and remains with the Brazilian club
today.
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