7 players we’d be most gutted to see go to the Saudi Pro League after Darwin Nunez completes move
Darwin Nunez has signed for Saudi Pro League club Al-Hilal and to be honest we’re a bit gutted that one of football’s most entertaining mavericks has left the top of the game in Europe.
As long as the wonderfully enigmatic Uruguayan striker is out in Saudi Arabia, we can’t imagine we’ll watch him play again.
That’s got us thinking: which players would we be most disappointed to see follow Nunez? We’ve identified seven players we hope don’t take the Saudi dough.
Vinicius Junior
“I’ll do it 10x if I have to. They’re not ready,” Vini posted after his Ballon d’Or snub last year.
We can’t imagine one incredibly forgettable season before swanning off into football irrelevance for untold millions is exactly what he had in mind. We can’t imagine too many Hollywood executives queuing up to buy the rights for that redemption tale.
The Brazilian has a point to prove and undoubtedly possesses the ability to shine at the elite level for many more years to come.
Aside from that, it’d be a cheap get-out clause for the tactical conundrum that faces Xabi Alonso at Real Madrid. Carlo Ancelotti struggled to build a functioning team with both him and Kylian Mbappe – we’re fascinated to see how his successor solves that puzzle.
Harry Maguire
In fairness, we’ve not seen any credible links with Maguire and Saudi Pro League clubs. There isn’t anything to suggest this one is on the cards.
But the Saudi Pro League’s assault on the transfer market has been a veritable hodge-podge of players, profiles and styles. Maguire isn’t one that’d especially surprise us – given players as varied as Chris Smalling, Jack Hendry, Gabri Veiga and Steven Bergwijn have moved out there.
Why not an experienced England international and former Manchester United captain next?
It’d make us sad to see ol’ Slabhead sweating out there. A move to West Ham or Everton after leaving Old Trafford is surely his destiny, eventually seeing out his career Jagielka-style as a grizzled veteran in the Football League. Anything else wouldn’t feel right.
Lamine Yamal
According to reports, back in 2023, Al Hilal offered Mbappe an absolutely obscene salary, effectively offering to shell out €1billion for the French World Cup winner to play out there for just one season.
Mercifully, Mbappe rejected their advances and eventually sealed his dream move to Real Madrid. Phew.
But that ought to come as a warning shot that Al Hilal’s overlords from the Saudi state are serious. They’ve got almost infinite resources to try and tempt the world’s most marketable footballers.
Yamal has recently committed his future to boyhood club Barcelona, with a €1billion release clause in his contract, but we can’t imagine that’ll stop Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund testing the waters.
They have time on their side to make at least one earth-shattering marquee signing ahead of hosting the 2034 World Cup. Who better than the current Ballon d’Or favourite, football’s most exciting young talent since Lionel Messi? Gulp.
Casemiro
A bit like his compatriot Vinicius, Casemiro still has a point to prove in European football.
One final season in European football – trophyless; 15th in the table – wouldn’t exactly be a convincing rebuke to Jamie Carragher’s remarkably brutal assessment that he was finished. That surely can’t be the way for a five-time Champions League winner to go out?
There’d also be an unsatisfying get-out-of-jail-free-card element to him moving to Saudi Arabia now. Manchester United offered him some colossal wages and, for better or worse, they ought to live with that decision.
The Saudi Pro League offered a convenient get-out clause for clubs that made transfer mistakes (Joao Felix) or had players past it (Fabinho, Jordan Henderson). Frankly, it’s a bit annoying.
Mohamed Salah
Arguably the greatest Arab footballer in history, and certainly the most famous in the world right now, it doesn’t take a genius to work out why the Saudi Pro League reportedly have identified Salah as their poster boy in waiting.
It’s been gratifying to see Liverpool’s Egyptian King give them the cold shoulder so far – proving he very much belongs at the top level by firing the Reds to the Premier League title while smashing the single-season goals and assists record.
Salah eventually put the saga to bed by signing a fresh two-year deal at Anfield towards the back end of last season. But we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see those links rear their head again.
Olivier Giroud
The Saudi ship has probably sailed for Giroud, if it were ever even an option for him.
The 38-year-old World Cup winner had a brief, surprisingly underwhelming, stint out in MLS (we’d have banked on him scoring shedloads for LAFC). Now he’s back in Ligue 1 after signing for Lille.
Giroud has been a vocal LGBT ally and it’d be a massive shame for those words to ring hollow, like Jordan Henderson before him, if he took up an offer from a state where being gay is criminalised. A sigh of relief that he’s not taken up the option – fingers crossed he never will.
Lionel Messi
The Saudi Pro League made a well-publicised megaoffer to lure Messi back in 2023, when he called time on his European career.
Thankfully the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner turned down their approach, although he has disappointingly done some work as a tourism ambassador.
Messi’s current contract with Inter Miami is approaching the end. It’s expected that he’ll remain with the MLS club, but we wouldn’t rule out the Saudi Pro League making another big approach for the rights to the final chapter of his glittering career.
We can think of fewer spectacles as grim as a Saudi-funded rehashing of the Messi-Ronaldo rivalry, the two geriatrics ambling about and pocketing unthinkable amounts to do so.
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