{"id":518229,"date":"2026-03-04T13:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518229\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T13:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:55:07","slug":"saudi-clubs-have-a-new-strategy-buy-up-frances-best-young-footballers-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518229\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi clubs have a new strategy: buy up France\u2019s best young footballers | Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Signing Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Karim Benzema and N\u2019Golo Kant\u00e9 brought eyes to the Saudi Pro League<\/a> but, in their bid to hold that gaze and avoid a repeat of what happened to the Chinese Super League, Saudi clubs have implemented a new strategy and targeted a new demographic. Eighteen months ago, the league introduced an extra spot in squads for foreign players, provided they were under the age of 21 when recruited. Saudi clubs honed in on France, where they have found willing sellers and enthusiastic recruits.<\/p>\n

French football is not a self-sustaining ecosystem. Long dead is the dream of a \u20ac1bn broadcast rights deal, announced before last season. In the end, clubs earned less than \u20ac500m. This season, with the withdrawal of Dazn and the launch of the league\u2019s own Ligue 1<\/a> Plus, broadcasting rights will total around \u20ac270m. BeIN Sports are pulling out of their deal to broadcast a game each weekend, so receipts will be even lower next season. The league\u2019s channel is likely to earn just \u20ac120m for the 18 top-flight clubs. Alarm bells have sounded and salvation has come in an unfamiliar form.<\/p>\n

Luckily, France sits on what one recruiter with knowledge of the Saudi market calls the \u201cbiggest hotbed of talent in the world\u201d. Developing and selling that talent has become the business model. Premier League clubs pay the highest fees, so tailoring players to sell to that market has become common practice in academies across France.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way for French clubs to survive is by selling many more players than we buy,\u201d says Monaco<\/a> CEO Thiago Scuro. The entry of a new client into the market was described as \u201cpositive\u201d by Scuro after Al-Ittihad dug his club out of a hole in the winter. The club needed to make a sale before July or risk Uefa sanctions. The fear was that one of their star players, either Maghnes Akliouche or Lamine Camara, would have to be sacrificed. Ultimately, both stayed and George Ilenikhena, who had started just three Ligue 1 games all season, departed for a \u20ac33m fee.<\/p>\n

The striker\u2019s move to Saudi Arabia left Scuro with mixed feelings. \u201cWe are now good on Uefa rules,\u201d he says. \u201cI had to make the best choice for the organisation. I wanted to keep George. He is a player with a lot of potential. We are happy to have found a solution for the financial situation, but it is also a shame that a young player with a lot of potential to progress leaves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohamed Kader Meite joined Al-Hilal from Rennes in January. Photograph: X\/Al-Hilal<\/p>\n

Rennes are familiar with that bittersweet sensation, having sold one of their brightest prospects, Mohamed Kader Meit\u00e9, to Al-Hilal<\/a> in January for \u20ac30m. He was the second-most expensive arrival in the Saudi Pro League in January, behind Ilenikhena.<\/p>\n

His arrival followed a Saudi summer splurge on French talent. Nathan Z\u00e9z\u00e9 joined Neom from Nantes<\/a> for \u20ac20m; Valentin Atangana and Amadou Kon\u00e9 (who were born in Mali and developed in the Reims academy) left for a combined \u20ac38m fee, a godsend for the relegated club; and Saimon Bouabr\u00e9 moved from Monaco to Neom. His performances have since earned him a \u20ac23m move to Al-Hilal.<\/p>\n

Bouabr\u00e9\u2019s agent, Luis Ferrer, says the \u201cintensity\u201d of the Saudi Pro League, coupled with the presence of \u201cbig stars and big managers, like Simone Inzaghi\u201d, are attractive to players. But they were not the biggest draws. \u201cThe game time wasn\u2019t there at Monaco. He had to go to Saudi Arabia, where that was guaranteed. The priority was football. It wasn\u2019t a question of money,\u201d says Ferrer.<\/p>\n

However, the financial incentives to move are obvious. \u201cEveryone is speaking about Saudi Arabia in the dressing room,\u201d says the Paris FC midfielder Ilan Kebbal. \u201cIt is difficult to see some young players leave the league, but would we say no if we were in their position?\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as offering big salaries, Saudi clubs can afford expensive transfer fees. \u201cWhen a club comes and offers you these salaries, you don\u2019t necessarily think about yourself \u2013 you think about your family,\u201d says the agent of a young French player who has joined the Saudi Pro League. \u201cEven if we want to go to certain clubs in Europe, unfortunately, the only clubs able to pay the fee are the Saudi clubs, so there is not a lot of choice in terms of destination.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is also a cultural pull for some players, with one source saying players even \u201cseek it out\u201d. Benzema referenced religion when he joined Al-Ittihad in 2023<\/a>. \u201cI am a Muslim and it is a Muslim country, and so I want to live there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is very important to be in a Muslim country where I feel as though people love me. It will allow me to have a new life,\u201d added the former France international, who moved from Al-Ittihad to Al-Hilal earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Many of the young players leaving France for Saudi Arabia are Muslim. \u201cIf it responds to an ethnic, religious orientation favourably, then all of the lights are green,\u201d says Stanislas Frenkiel, a historian at the University of Artois who researches the link between football and immigration. \u201cThe fact that more and more young players are leaving for Saudi Arabia will incite others to remove their inhibitions and go and follow them. There are migration channels that are opening. It is attractive for religious reasons and increasingly for sporting reasons, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sporting reasons remain focal. Most of these young footballers hope to graduate to a top European club one day but they are not yet ready for that step. Saudi Arabia, therefore, is not a final destination but a stepping stone. Ferrer talks about Bouabr\u00e9 coming back to Europe in two or three years \u201cbetter armed\u201d. Another agent added that \u201cthe objective is not to stay there for 15 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The success of this new route may depend on whether Saudi Arabia offers players a way back to Europe. \u201cFor French football, we hope that these players can be developed in Saudi Arabia at the same level as in Europe,\u201d says Scuro, who \u2013 like other executives at French clubs \u2013 has a vested interest in the success of the Saudi Pro League\u2019s new strategy.<\/p>\n

The subject of money inevitably permeates conversations about French players moving to Saudi Arabia, but the draw is often for clubs as much as players. \u201cThere is less passion in the game,\u201d says Kebbal but passion does not keep French clubs afloat; Saudi Arabia\u2019s intense interest in their talent just might.<\/p>\n

This is an article by Get French Football News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Signing Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Karim Benzema and N\u2019Golo Kant\u00e9 brought eyes to the Saudi Pro League but, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-518229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}