The Saudi Pro League: Football’s Rising Power

Surge of Transfers to Saudi Clubs

The Saudi Pro League, and their four PIF-backed super clubs, have been hoovering up well-known players over the past month. This trend, which started with Cristiano’s move to the Middle East in January, has continued with huge contracts being offered to ageing stars looking for one last payday. Karim Benzema, Roberto Firmino, and Ngolo Kante took the big bags of cash over offers to stay. Fabinho and Jordan Henderson might soon be joining them, with Edouard Mendy and Kalidou Koulibaly already having made the move.

Those players have one thing in common. They’re all well past their best. None of them are of the standard required at the highest level anymore. Some are a long way from it.

Others to make the move are Marcelo Brozovic, Ruben Neves, and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. Those are a different category of signings. Those are players still performing at a very high level, who likely had plenty of suitors at major European clubs. But none of them are truly marquee names.

A New Milestone: Bernardo Silva’s Potential Transfer

Bernardo Silva, on the other hand, is both a marquee name and at the peak of his powers. Since joining Manchester City from AS Monaco in 2017, Silva has established himself as one of the very best players in the Premier League and has been a vital part of all five titles won under Pep Guardiola.

Silva has, for the past few summers, been linked with moves away from City with rumours doing the rounds that he doesn’t enjoy living in England’s north-east despite loving playing for Pep. Barcelona and PSG have been linked with him repeatedly so if he were to depart it would not come as a shock, and were he to join either of those clubs it would be perfectly normal to see a top-class player move between top clubs in his prime.

Potential Impact Football Landscape

But should Silva depart for Saudi Arabia, it would mark a massive shift in the footballing landscape. Whatever about plucking off past-their-best big names with huge offers, or good players of a lower level in their primes, taking one of the best players in not just the Premier League but Europe in general would be an enormous statement of intent by the Saudi Pro League and bad news for English football.

Threat to Premier League’s Dominance

The Premier League, through their incredible TV revenue, have been able to outspend all of their rival leagues in recent years which has taken the league from strength to strength. But if a real rival for the world’s top players emerges, it could change the landscape.