{"id":602895,"date":"2026-09-01T19:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/602895\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T19:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:30:12","slug":"ahead-of-the-classico-against-al-nassr-al-ittihad-find-a-replacement-for-imam-ashour-at-benfica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/602895\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahead of the classico against Al-Nassr: Al-Ittihad find a replacement for Imam Ashour at Benfica"},"content":{"rendered":"

Al-Ittihad have continued their signings during the current summer transfer window, just days before their first Clasico of the new season, against traditional rivals Al-Nassr.<\/p>\n

The Jeddah giants face Al-Nassr next Saturday at the Al-Inma Stadium, in the fifth round of the Saudi Roshn League.<\/p>\n

And 96 hours before the match, the “ESPN” network<\/a> revealed that Benfica have agreed to the transfer of their Colombian midfielder Richard Rios to Al-Ittihad during the current summer transfer window.<\/p>\n

Rios will join the Saudi club on loan for one season, for between 3 and 4 million euros, with Al-Ittihad covering his wages in full. There is no buy-back clause.<\/p>\n

The move comes as Al-Ittihad look to strengthen a position they had struggled to fill, particularly after missing out on several targets recently, the latest of them Imam Ashour, the star of Egypt’s Al-Ahly.<\/p>\n

Rios becomes the third midfielder Al-Ittihad have signed this summer, after Senegal’s Dion Lopy from Spain’s Almeria and Saudi Arabia’s Rakan Kaabi from Al-Feiha.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old leaves the Portuguese side after a single season, having arrived last summer from Brazil’s Palmeiras for 16 million euros.<\/p>\n

In that time, Rios played 51 matches for Benfica across various competitions, scoring 8 goals and providing 6 assists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Al-Ittihad have continued their signings during the current summer transfer window, just days before their first Clasico of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[272534,20870,92077,272533,85,46,272532,24484,105,9461],"class_list":["post-602895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-al-ittihad-vs-al-nassr-fc","tag-al-nassr-fc","tag-al-ittihad","tag-e-ashour","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-r-rios","tag-saudi-pro-league","tag-sports","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}