9 big-name players who have turned down a move to Saudi Arabia: Fernandes, Messi…
Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes is the latest high-profile player to reject a lucrative move to Saudi Arabia, in favour of staying in Europe.
After Cristiano Ronaldo moved to the Saudi Pro League at the end of 2022, Saudi Arabian clubs have successfully recruited a number of high-profile European-based footballers such as Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante, Neymar and Moussa Diaby.
So we’ve identified seven well-known footballers who have rejected moves to Saudi Arabia and chosen to play elsewhere.
Bruno Fernandes
Al-Hilal have been pushing hard in recent weeks to sign Fernandes ahead of the Club World Cup this summer.
However, despite offering him a mammoth contract worth a reported £700,000 per week, he’s rejected their offer in favour of staying at United.
Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that the 30-year-old wants to continue playing in Europe and therefore won’t be making the switch to Saudi this summer. Fair play to him.
Marcus Rashford
Made available for transfer in the January 2025 window by Manchester United, Rashford reportedly turned down three approaches from Saudi Pro League clubs as he looks to revitalise his career.
The 27-year-old wanted to maintain his chances of an England recall and therefore joined Aston Villa on loan instead.
Ousmane Dembele
Al-Nassr had already snapped up the likes of Seko Fofana and Marcelo Brozovic in 2023 before settling their sights on Dembele.
Then at Barcelona, the winger only had one year left to run on his deal at Camp Nou and a switch to Saudi did look feasible at one stage.
However, according to Foot Mercato, the winger turned down a five-year deal worth £35m per season from Al-Nassr. For context, that’s around £673,000 per week he snubbed to stay in Spain.
Dembele has since been ripping things up at PSG.
Jamie Vardy
Vardy rejected a move to Saudi Arabia out of hand after several clubs, including Khaleej FC, expressed interest in signing the Leicester striker following the Foxes relegation in 2023.
The veteran striker apparently considered a move to the Gulf state a non-starter for him and his family and instead fired Leicester back to the top flight at the first attempt.
Lionel Messi
In the end, Messi opted for Inter Miami, but it looked likely for a while that he’d become the highest-paid athlete of all time by moving to Saudi Arabia.
Al-Hilal offered the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner a staggering deal worth a reported £1billion, which would’ve made Cristiano Ronaldo gristle if nothing else.
But the greatest player of his generation chose to move to America in an attempt to enjoy his ‘day-to-day life’ more than he did in Paris.
READ: Where are they now? The 5 best players in the world in 2019 according to Lionel Messi
Luka Modric
Al-Hilal, who signed Ronaldo and Benzema within a few months of each other, targeted another Real Madrid legend to maintain their status as one of the top clubs in Saudi Arabia.
They offered Modric £171million to play in the Saudi Pro League for three seasons, but the evergreen Croatia international decided to stay in Madrid because his family were settled there.
Now available on a free transfer in 2025, it remains to be seen where Modric will go next.
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Sergio Busquets
Busquets announced he was leaving Barcelona in May 2023, following a glittering career with the Spanish giants. Combined with his exploits with the Spanish national side, the midfielder has won every prize on offer in the modern game.
And it was widely reported one of the four PIF-owned Saudi clubs were extremely keen on bringing Busquets over to the country.
But, like his former Barca team-mate Messi, he opted for a move to Inter Miami – where they were soon joined by Jordi Alba and Luis Suarez.
Romelu Lukaku
Lukaku, who spent the 2022-23 season on loan at Inter Milan, was offered an incredible £21million-a-year deal from Al-Hilal. Reports also suggested the striker had already met with club officials to discuss a move.
However, the Belgium international didn’t appear keen, despite his unwillingness to return to Chelsea and settled on a loan move to Roma instead before then joining Napoli last year.
Olivier Giroud
According to transfer expert Nicolo Schira, Giroud was also approached with an “important offer” from an unnamed club in Saudi Arabia in 2023.
But France’s record goalscorer, who spent six years at Arsenal and another three at Chelsea in the Premier League, turned them down as he wanted to continue playing in Europe.
Giroud did leave the old continent one year later and moved to LAFC in the United States.