Saudi clubs continue their raid on English football with another signing

Dubai: The news of Al Qadsiah signing highly rated Manchester City midfielder Tijjani Reijnders is the latest indication of Saudi Arabia’s growing influence on English football, with the Pro League continuing to raid clubs in the Premier League.

Reijnders’ arrival in Saudi Arabia takes the league’s tally to more than 20 players signed directly from Premier League clubs since the Saudi spending boom began in 2023.

Saudi Arabia’s football revolution was fuelled by the country’s vast oil wealth and its Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has been used as part of Vision 2030 to diversify the economy and raise Saudi Arabia’s global profile.

The transformation of the Saudi Pro League accelerated in 2023, when PIF took 75 per cent stakes in Al-Nassr, Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli, paving the way for an unprecedented spending spree.

But the first major statement had already been made months earlier, when the legendary Cristiano Ronaldo left Manchester United and signed for Al-Nassr in December 2022.

His arrival, reportedly on a deal worth more than €200 million a year, put the Saudi Pro League firmly on the global football map and helped set the stage for the influx of superstar talent that followed.

The financial incentives have been a major part of Saudi Arabia’s appeal to players, with clubs able to offer salaries that can dwarf what many footballers could earn in Europe.

But the attraction extends beyond wages, with players also able to negotiate lucrative bonuses and lifestyle benefits as Saudi clubs look to make their offers as difficult to refuse as possible.

The combination of huge salaries, tax advantages and an increasingly competitive league has made the Saudi Pro League an increasingly attractive destination for established stars and, more recently, younger players.

The Saudi Pro League increasingly looks like a project built for the long term, with clubs no longer simply targeting established Premier League stars in the twilight of their careers, but actively pursuing players who are still in their prime and have years of top-level football ahead of them.

That shift is evident this summer, with Crysencio Summerville, 24, leaving West Ham for Al-Hilal in a deal worth up to £60 million, despite interest from European clubs, while Reijnders, 28, is set to join Al-Qadsiah from Manchester City for around £52 million.

Both were important players for their Premier League clubs last season, yet Saudi Arabia has demonstrated that its ambitions and financial power are now strong enough to lure talent away from English football at the peak of their careers.