Where are they now? The Saudi Pro League’s 10 biggest transfers before Cristiano Ronaldo arrived

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.

QUIZ: Can you name the 20 highest-paid players in the Saudi Pro League?

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.

READ NEXT: 10 players we’re most gutted took the Saudi cash: Duran, Veiga, Neymar…

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the 25 most expensive transfers of all time?

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.

READ: 5 high-profile managers who flopped while managing in Saudi Arabia

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.