The Saudi Pro League’s entrance into the transfer market this summer may have changed football forever. Cristiano Ronaldo’s decision to join Al-Nassr in January opened the door, and Europe’s best players have since flooded over to the Middle East to experience a ‘new challenge’ – and become even more wealthy in the process.
So much of the debate surrounding this great migration has focused on off-field considerations, such as transfer fees, wages and commercial potential. Whereas the effect that this influx of talent might have on the pitch was scarcely considered.
However, the season is now finally underway and the performances of these glitzy arrivals have been surprising to say the least. Marquee signings like Karim Benzema, Sadio Mane and Riyad Mahrez were expected to take the Pro League by storm. Instead, the European imports have had variable success.
Perhaps what’s been even more surprising is that some of them have struggled to get their own way in the dressing room, allaying any fears that Pro League clubs would bend to every whim of their new signings.
Benzema and Al-Ittihad is not a happy marriage
The prime example of such tension is Benzema’s apparent power struggle with Nuno Espirito Santo at Al-Ittihad. The Frenchman is yet to score in the league since joining the Saudi champions, and there’s been a storm brewing in the dressing room too.
Shortly after arriving at the club, Benzema is said to have requested the captaincy, but Nuno refused to budge, with the armband remaining with Brazilian forward Romarinho this season.
This disagreement is threatening to spiral into a full-blown internal war. Benzema is understood to be ‘uncomfortable’ at Al-Ittihad, meaning a quite sensational early-season departure cannot be ruled out. All of this is playing out amid a backdrop of further uncertainty.
Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat recently reported that there is a disagreement over foreign player registration at the club. Former West Brom defender Ahmed Hegazi is currently injured but is demanding his contract be paid up in full if Al-Ittihad wants him to leave. Skipper Romarinho is even understood to have asked to depart at one stage
Then there’s the strange story of Jota, a £25 million ($31.7m) arrival from Celtic in July, who is apparently set to exit after just a few weeks. The reasons for his apparent departure are not entirely clear and nothing is confirmed yet, but it’s indicative of the wider culture of chaos that has engulfed the champions this summer.
It’s not what Benzema signed up for when he agreed to swap Madrid for Jeddah back in June.
The heat is no joke
It’s not just off-field politics that has taken some of the Saudi Pro League’s new arrivals by surprise. The unrelenting heat has also proved challenging.
When asked about his first impressions of the country after scoring his maiden Al-Ahli goal against Al-Khaleej, Mahrez joked that it was “very hot”. In truth, though, the conditions are no laughing matter for athletes not used to the stifling weather.
In August, temperatures in the Gulf State can reach highs of 49°C and things rarely get cooler than 30°C – even in the ‘coldest’ moments. Fabinho has also mentioned how the heat got to him on his Al-Ittihad debut, saying: “We dominated the course of the match, despite the difficult atmosphere and the high temperature.”
His feelings are likely shared by a significant portion of players in the league. It’s something they will have to adjust to as they look to make a new life in the country.
Ronaldo makes shaky start
It’s not just the recent signings that haven’t had it all their own way in the Pro League this season. The division’s poster boy, Ronaldo, has also endured a challenging start to the campaign.
Since helping his side lift the Arab Club Champions Cup by grabbing a fine brace against Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr’s form has fallen off a cliff. With Ronaldo injured, they slipped to a shock defeat against Steven Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq on the opening day.
Things didn’t go much better when they hosted Al-Taawoun the following week, with Ronaldo looking far from fit as his team suffered another disappointing loss. Victory over Shabab Al-Ahli in the AFC Champions League may look like a return to form, but they made hard work of their win – even if some questionable refereeing decisions made their task much harder.
So, what’s going wrong? Well, we are used to Premier League managers complaining about fixture congestion, but Saudi clubs also have to contend with tricky schedules too. Al-Nassr boss Luis Castro recently fumed after his side had to play Al-Ettifaq just 48 hours after that aforementioned Arab Club Champions Cup final.
“I do not know how to play on Monday, it is impossible, besides that we played extra-time in the final tonight. We have to respect the players. It is impossible for us to play after 48 hours of a strong final,” he said.
In this sense, playing at the top clubs in Saudi is far from the holiday it was presented as by some onlookers this summer. Combine the heavy fixture load with the intense heat and it’s a recipe for underperformance.
All not well at Al-Nassr
Fixture congestion is not Al-Nassr’s only problem either. Much like at Al-Ittihad, disputes about the squad’s composition have played out rather publicly in recent times.
David Ospina remains contracted to the Saudi side until next summer, but the club are understood to want to move him on due to a long-term injury. Supporters have also loudly voiced their dissatisfaction over the team’s lack of defensive solidity on social media in recent weeks.
Ronaldo has had plenty of complaints in addition to the schedule too. Back in April, he took aim at the poor condition of the pitch after Al-Nassr’s King’s Cup defeat to Al-Wehda, and various referees have attracted his ire already this season.
His complaints are not entirely unreasonable. They are more of a reflection of how the Saudi Pro League needs to continue developing in areas separate from on-field talent if they want to seriously rival the big European leagues.
Firmino has delivered – but now he’s out
Amid several of his fellow ex-European stars making inauspicious starts, Roberto Firmino has stuck out as an oven-ready Pro League star. He scored a sublime hat-trick on his Al-Ahli debut, with disaster striking soon after in the form of an injury sustained in training.
As if his absence wasn’t enough of a blow, the injury also apparently led to a dispute over which of the club’s foreign signings would take the captain’s armband in his stead.
Franck Kessie was the player chosen by Matthias Jaissle, which reportedly irritated Mahrez. Edouard Mendy might have had something to say about the decision too. It would be an overstatement to call it a full-blown dispute, but the noise it created in the local media shows how managers of the clubs who spent big this summer are going to have to manage dressing-room dynamics carefully.
These are big players, with egos and power to influence their team-mates. Keeping all of them happy in this environment where they’ve been brought in to be the big dogs in an aspirational league is not going to be easy.
And we’ve still got Neymar to come…
All of the off-field politics outlined above acts as a fitting precursor to Neymar’s arrival next month once he returns from injury to take his place in Al-Hilal’s line-up. A generational talent he may be, but the Brazilian has also been a magnet for controversy throughout his much-discussed career.
How his entrance into this already volatile atmosphere will affect things remains to be seen – but it’s unlikely to be boring. Neymar is used to getting his own way – the guy literally built his own lake and happily paid the multi-million-dollar environmental fine.
However, like those who joined the Saudi project slightly before him, the ex-Paris Saint-Germain man could find out that the Pro League is a tougher nut to crack than he might have imagined.
