Quote from: Sithara007 on Today at 02:53:07 AM

Quote from: Slow death on December 27, 2024, 11:24:48 PM

players will always want to earn a lot of money, and in Europe they earn a lot of money. But football is a profession, and like every profession, we also look to the long-term future, we look to gain recognition from society. If Victor Osimhen had left Nigeria and gone straight to the Saudi League, you and no one else in this thread would be talking about him, because he would be an anonymous guy and his market value would not be very high and he would not be a very important player for the Nigerian national team. It is thanks to him playing in Europe that he has so much fame. So while he is young and playing in Europe, he should fight to play for the big clubs in Europe and win titles in Europe. When he is old and wants to retire, he can go to this Saudi League.

Once again, I have to disagree here. The Saudi Professional League is not an old age home, which is only suitable for players who are nearing their retirement. At the moment, they have world class players such as Aleksandar Mitrović, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Musa Barrow and Moussa Dembélé participating in the league and these players are in no way near the retiremet age. Europeans are simply jealous of what the Saudi Professional League has achieved, and they will gargle out all sort of stories to downplay the league.

If Cristiano Ronaldo was given the option to play for Real Madrid again when he left Manchester United, then he would not have accepted to play in the Saudi League. If Benzema had not started to suffer so many injuries, he would have stayed at Real Madrid. All these players you mentioned are in the Saudi League because they did not have the chance to play for the big teams in Europe on a regular basis, so they preferred to go to the Saudi League because they can earn a lot of money. But they may have ruined their careers. Because I highly doubt that after their contract ends, the Saudis will give them the same contract, their salary will be lower in the new contract and the reason is very simple:

When a player leaves a European team for Saudi Arabia, the Saudis become dependent on that player, so they make big offers like a 3-year contract with high salaries

But when that player is already in the Saudi league and the 3-year contract ends, the market value of that player is no longer worth anything, so the Saudis will set their terms, they may set very low salaries because they know that those players will never play for big European teams again

That is why smart players only go to play in that league when they want to retire