Saudi soccer league remains as ambitious as ever despite quiet transfer window, CEO says

Despite a relatively quiet transfer window in Saudi Arabia, the arrival of Ivan Toney and Joao Cancelo shows that the ambitions of the cash-rich Saudi Pro League remain as high as ever, according to league chief executive Omar Mugharbel.

August ended with Al-Ahli of Jeddah paying London club Brentford a reported 40 million euros ($44 million) for Toney on Friday , three days after Premier League champion Manchester City sold Cancelo to Riyadh’s Al-Hilal.

“This is only the beginning with more transfers on the pitch and more development off the pitch,” Mugharbel told The Associated Press as the SPL summer transfer window ended Monday.

Still, the amount spent by the 18 SPL clubs in this transfer window is expected to only be about a third of what they splashed out last summer, when they went on a $957 million shopping spree that resulted in huge stars such as Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante, Neymar and Riyad Mahrez joining Cristiano Ronaldo — who signed for Al-Nassr in December 2022.

No such megastars joined this time, with players such as Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior opting to stay at their European clubs.

Until Toney arrived, the most significant signing was Al-Ittihad paying $60 million to Aston Villa for French winger Moussa Diaby.

“The reality is that there have been a lot of signings this summer but maybe not the ones that the media are most interested in,” said Mugharbel, who became CEO in January.

One reason for the relative lack of big deals is that many clubs already had their full quota of foreign players. Each SPL team is limited to 10 imports, of which two must be 21 or under. With most of the top stars staying at their clubs, space for new signings has been limited.

Defending champion Al-Hilal had to offload Brazilian attacker Michael Delgado in order to bring in Cancelo. According to domestic reports, Al-Nassr released former Manchester United defender Alex Telles on Sunday ahead of signing a replacement on Monday.

“Last season we had a lot of opportunities to sign star players either because we had the positions available in the clubs themselves or there were a lot of interesting players that we wanted to recruit into the league,” Mugharbel said. “For the most part, most of the players that we brought in or the clubs brought in are actually still in the league, which is a positive sign that things are moving in the right direction.”

The most active club in the transfer market has been newly-promoted Al-Qadsiah. Backed by Saudi oil giant Aramco, the club from the eastern city of Al-Khobar has made a number of signings.

The two most prominent saw former Arsenal and Barcelona striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang arriving from Marseille and Spanish international defender Nacho Fernandez signing from Real Madrid, where he won 26 trophies, including six Champions League titles.

“I think what we’ve managed to do last season is really open up the league and create an attractive proposition for star players,” added Mugharbel. “We are continuing on the same path.”