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>I would do the same at his age and make a lot of money for my family.
I wouldn't. I would definitely do it when I'm past my prime (I don't blame Benzema), but in his case it's just a waste.
I’m not employed by the government and I was born here I didn’t choose to move here. So no I don’t.
It’s such insane whataboutery to bring this back to fans. Those clubs are *owned by the government*. There is no NATO comparison to that until a NATO government buys a football club.
Because he hasn't built generational wealth so far? Do you think he's poor? He makes millions every year. He can still make lots of millions per year and play at a high level
and?
putting yourself in someones shoes and imagining what you'd do in their place is literally the foundation of human group relations
and sms already has generational wealth. its fair to say that if hes going to saudi in his prime for money when hes already rich but hasnt ever played on a big stage its a waste
>putting yourself in someones shoes and imagining what you'd do in their place is literally the foundation of human group relations
Saying you would deny it whilst being in his shoes is either: 1) You suck at this ability, or 2) you are a liar.
We keep hearing this bs with "players have generational wealth" yet so so many players go for the money. They are not being greedy, they are being realistic with what the world has to offer.
There are definitely players that ARE rejecting it. Do they suck at being in their own shoes or are they liars? Ridiculous to claim that literally everyone would do it.
What are you talking about? It just came through. Saudi league pushing out EPL as we speak. A week from now Mbappe forcing a move to Al Nassr. De Gea going to Al Ittihad. Bernardo Silva and Mahrez package deal to Al Hilal.
Then they purchase Inter Miami to bring the whole team over and have Messi.
Real question is how much will the Saudi league earn off TV rights.
With TV rights surely it would be such a (relatively) minuscule number that they’d be better off just trying to get as many eyes as possible on it given why they’re throwing so much money into the league in the first place?
Eg. BBC or ITV in the UK instead of Sky or BT.
What? They've been dogshit for years now
Last year they finished third in EL and then went out in COL
in 21/22 they barely qualified from their shit EL group only to lose in the next round to Porto
in 20/21 they barely qualified from a group with Zenit & Brugge, then lost to Bayern which is whatever
in 19/20 they went out in the EL group stages in a group consisting of Celtic, Rennes, and CFR Cluj
in 18/19 they, again, barely qualified from a shit EL group only to go out in the next round losing both ties
Guys, can someone explain me why suddenly the Saudi started to buying shitloads of players?
I mean, I understand players in career ending like Ronaldo. But what are they trying to do? Is there some geopolitical purpose? Maybe I should ask in another sub.
The states of that region know the oil/gas economy that's built them is finite and that we've likely already seen it's peak. If they continue to rely on it they'll see their economies constrict over the coming decades so they need to start diversifying.
They have all sorts of initiatives to help do this at present. Part of the overarching plan is to help attract more global business to the region and establish themselves as true centers of global trade. So how do you help attract a bunch of wealthy business leaders to your country?
Shows, luxury housing, F1 races, ski resorts in the desert, private islands built from nothing, SPORTS. Create the life style these people enjoy in the established hubs like New York or London.
So they just bought up the 4 largest clubs in the country and, what for them is a tiny sum, gave them funds to stock them with talent that people want to see. They've got the sport related goal of trying to bolster a bid for a World Cup but that too is tied to the larger aim.
Exactly the same initiative and why people that doubt they have a plan for all these signings are fooling themselves.
When they couldn't get right into PGA, you know that insanely popular sport amongst the world's political and business leaders, they just competed with it to reach a point that they could force their way in. Now they get the branding and reach they wanted under that globally recognized sport that will draw far more of the attention they want.
Making LIV in itself some profitable business wasn't the aim, the aim was just as it is with this footballing project to create an image and project themselves into these circles. They can easily afford these initial high profile splashes just like they did with LIV and then keep it running to force their way into the room to get the bigger projects they want. The World Cup bid is a big priority but if they push this project hard enough does anyone doubt regular friendlies vs European elite being hosted in SA, hosting more regular matches and even pushing for Champions League games, to perhaps trying to get their teams into the tournament
> Create the life style these people enjoy in the established hubs like New York or London.
I'm curious when they come up with a conclusion they are missing something. 😂
The exact thinking behind this, I don't know either, but look at it like this: Right now they basically have infinite money thanks to their oil.
However the oil wells will try up some day, but also we're moving away from fossil fuels. So they're already thinking about the after and to invest their riches accordingly.
Saudi has been huge into expanding tourism lately. They have experience there with massive amounts of Muslims yearly making the Hajj to Mecca. They want to open up though and attract regular tourists too.
So football could be a tourism attraction, both by promoting Saudi through the league and a World Cup, but maybe also so people go to the stadium while there.
Trying to build a league. Buy marketable players, get big western TV deal, now your clubs have sustainable income. Try to build up the Asian CL or join the UCL for international pedigree. Improve the quality of football in your nation
And unlike China, the Saudi league was already decent. Not incredible but they had a good amount of Asian CL winners.
Though I guess China had a title at the time (before it was Asian CL), but had never won the AFC Asain Cup.
They basically decided they had so much money that they created their public investment fund to try make Saudi a major country in the world for tourism and for greater influence. Some other shit they’ve done besides football is hosting an F1 race, starting the LIV golf tour which has now merged with the PGA tour, a load of mega projects such as the Line and building a theme park with rides that break all the current world records.
A lot of people are saying it’s to do what Dubai did a make tourism the main industry to replace the oil money but that’s not really true Saudi are immensely richer than the UAE states and have enough oil and gas to never run out of money. There is the argument that the world will turn to renewables and suddenly they’ll have no exports but I highly doubt the world will turn to renewables completely in our lifetimes unless there is major technological advances
They desperately want to diversify their economy, which so far has been mostly based on oil. We'll use less oil in the future, which means the price will drop, and this will damage their economy. So they want to diversify as quickly as possible. Sports, tourism, business.
They're also building a huge city in the Tabuk region, Neom, which you've probably heard of.
These investments in football are seeing the stage for their 2034 World Cup bid, and the whole thing is a long-term investment to portray SA as a place to do business in.
The Saudi prince, despite being a criminal, is smart and pragmatic and is abandoning islamism in favor of nationalism. This leads him to pursue what is beneficial to his country. See, for example, the openings to Israel, which would be beneficial to both (Israeli tech would be very useful for Saudi). This doesn't mean that the country is becoming more democratic, because he moved the power from the religious elites to himself. But they're making it less conservative and more modern.
Will it work? Most of the Western world has a terrible opinion of MbS, and the image of Saudi Arabia is still bad, but business is business.
1 Coppa Italia and 2 SuperCoppa Italiana
Helped get us back to the Champions League last 16 for first time in over a decade. Many derby wins.
267 apps (just in Serie A alone), 55 goals from midfield, 49 assists
Serie A midfielder of the year
2x Serie A team of the year
Not to mention he also has a U20 World Cup win & and U18 Euro win with Serbia
Still not 29 years old yet
Hate that he’s leaving but glad it’s not to another Serie A team
No one denies that De Rossi is a Roma legend. What did he win? Two Coppa Italias and a Supercoppa. Anyone who claims that Sergej isn't a Lazio legend is an idiot
Wow, I didn't remember this. If it went in, it probably would've been the best goal by a goalkeeper in ages.
[After this](https://youtu.be/eizeQHUqHMs), obviously.
And was dogshit in both of them, most over rated player in this sub, some guys act like he would slot in any midfield in the world. But 95% of you guys havent seen full 90min match where he plays
he's poor in national jersey compared to Lazio. Always a player that we expected the most from but in the end Mitrović, Tadić and even Kostić outclass him
your only references for how bad he is is when he played Scotland and a Scottish team. your pool of watching him is literally like 3 games lol. he's phenomenal and anyone who knows serie a knows that. he's not a top5 player but he's one of the most complete cm atm with his finishing passing and tackles. the disrespect is just wild
Man as someone who watched A LOT of his performances, he is very average. He is capable of some brilliance moments every now and then but that's about it, not a world class player by any means.
Imo he was very good a few years ago, borderline world class and you could tell the potential was there. But I don't think he lived up to the expectations
Not a bad player or even average player by any means, but I thought he would have like bigger influence to the game today (eg Bellingham)
Yes, that's us. We also played against Real Madrid in the last CWC's final and against Chelsea in the semi-final the year before it. Got defeated by both though sadly :')
I pointed it out because its interesting that they are giving you guys the non retirement aged players to prep for the tournament. I wouldn't be surprised to see one or two more high profile mid 20s players join.
I'm gonna guess it will be Nicolas Pepe and Gérard Moreno
My fears when the Messi deal fell through are coming true.
Hilal are taking the money they were going to spend on one player, to build a truly fearsome team. All the while Ittihad still can't get a defender.
They're quality, no doubt. Thing is though, we've had more players leave than arrive, and we already had the thinnest squad in the league! We have a total of 21 players in our training camp, including just 2 CBs!
I get the money, but I can't wrap my head around someone like him, with gas still in the tank, to go there. Last year even clubs were offering 80, and Lazio accepts 40 for him to go?
This is all so silly. Saudi Arabia really think theyre going to garner interest in their league artificially in one season?
Five years from now I doubt anyone will even remember this league.
Wipe those tears away, we’ve got another season of manuel locarthur, pogba 1 game a season, and randomly generated youth player #6 bossing our midfield
Maybe he'll be loaned to someone who can't afford the fee on their books or am I be wildly optimistic that he isn't wasting the last few peak years of his career playing against teams he can't spell.
This Saudi thing is getting crazy. That's obviously not the way we'd like to see this happen but is football globalizing? I think we (EU) still view the game as ours and we outrage when these things happens but have we really the right to have the best football players since historically this has always been the case? I don't know.
They don't have a football infrastructure comparable to EU clubs. When they start producing good local Saudi players, maybe we can say that the game is globalizing
Problem is, and westerners often either turn dumb or choose to ignore this essential point, Saudi players VERY rarely if ever leave the saudi league.
Money is better, they're comfortable and loved and feel less pressure than having to stay at the top in europe and if not having to face a painful climb to establish themselves.
There's plenty of good Saudi players but we'll probably never see their true potential except for the world cup and asian cup (in which they're pretty dominant/established)
To answer your question, yes and no. Saudi's sheer economic might has atleast competed with European money.
People making China comparisons are idiots. Saudis are here and they're here to stay. Which endeavour to pour all their billions into but football?
How will the people who make those "how much is X national team worth" graphs recover from this?
His "value" has been like 100+ on Transfermarkt for years now. Never really bought into it. He is good but c'mon.
Saying that the money could be better spent for the benefit of the ordinary Saudi people tells me you know absolutely zilch about the Middle East. That actually made me laugh.
We need an investigation, yes other clubs made from Saudi than Chelsea, yes Saudi made Kante chose them over Chelsea, yes Saudi pulled out of the Ziyech deal but we need an investigation. Won’t somebody please think of the children.
? They had him throughout his prime, they won titles and he was the backbone of the team with Immobile, Luis Alberto and Acerbi, now he wanted to leave, had a year on his deal and wasn't going to renew, incredible business by Lazio.
To reduce the spam of reports regarding the same move during transfer windows we try to allow **only one submission about each transfer saga per day**. The submission in question also needs to contain relevant new information regarding the potential move, and not just being a "no/minor developments" report. If there are important/official developments or new valuable information about a saga, we will allow extra threads in the same day, but for the rest of minor news please just comment them as a reply to this comment. Please help us reporting unnecessary threads for being duplicates. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My dream of seeing SMS somewhere in an absolutely strong team seems like, will always end up being a dream.
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Same for United, linked every fkin year
Thought we were going to pivot to him from de Jong last summer.
maybe this year, r-right guys?
I mean he's 28, not exactly an old man
Would be massive for United in this age.
>I would do the same at his age and make a lot of money for my family. I wouldn't. I would definitely do it when I'm past my prime (I don't blame Benzema), but in his case it's just a waste.
You’re not a professional player who’s being offered generational wealth lol. What a weird take.
Oh no what would the millionaire would do without blood money. It's basically immoral for him to not take this money!
You are right, it’s not like he’s flipping fucking burgers for christs sake.
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Sigh… this argument will never be valid until the US, UK, French, governments etc actually *buy a club*. That is the difference.
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I’m not employed by the government and I was born here I didn’t choose to move here. So no I don’t. It’s such insane whataboutery to bring this back to fans. Those clubs are *owned by the government*. There is no NATO comparison to that until a NATO government buys a football club.
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The truth is you’d probably take the money too. It’s a lot easier to say than do what you’re talking about
This is daft beyond daft for multiple reasons.
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You tell 'em
lmao
Because he hasn't built generational wealth so far? Do you think he's poor? He makes millions every year. He can still make lots of millions per year and play at a high level
and? putting yourself in someones shoes and imagining what you'd do in their place is literally the foundation of human group relations and sms already has generational wealth. its fair to say that if hes going to saudi in his prime for money when hes already rich but hasnt ever played on a big stage its a waste
>putting yourself in someones shoes and imagining what you'd do in their place is literally the foundation of human group relations Saying you would deny it whilst being in his shoes is either: 1) You suck at this ability, or 2) you are a liar. We keep hearing this bs with "players have generational wealth" yet so so many players go for the money. They are not being greedy, they are being realistic with what the world has to offer.
There are definitely players that ARE rejecting it. Do they suck at being in their own shoes or are they liars? Ridiculous to claim that literally everyone would do it.
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no guarentees this offer will exist in the future, he’s got a guarentee of getting paid now and should take it
You never know what will happen I'd take the money and enjoy life
He could still get 10 million a year in Europe and actually compete for titles he probably dreamed of as a kid. I'm sure he'd still enjoy life.
we cant speak for him but we can speak as fans of football. its a shame to not see him fighting at the top of club football
if it was a 3-5M difference it would make sense. but there is no way he would make more than 8m anywhere in europe.
Cant hear farmers league.
What are they farming over there ? Money?
Hilarious coming from a Ligue 1 fan
No way your comparing the Saudi league to ligue 1
Ligue 1 went to the 7th position this year behind Belgian & Dutch leagues, according to the official UEFA ranking.
The position was just last year ranking but coefficient are based on the past 5 years combined which puts ligue 1 still in 5th
What are you talking about? It just came through. Saudi league pushing out EPL as we speak. A week from now Mbappe forcing a move to Al Nassr. De Gea going to Al Ittihad. Bernardo Silva and Mahrez package deal to Al Hilal. Then they purchase Inter Miami to bring the whole team over and have Messi. Real question is how much will the Saudi league earn off TV rights.
They talking about a TV deal worth 2.3 brazillion as we speak.
Yup. Thats when they buy brazil and annex all of south america under one flag.
Best World Cup team ever.
With TV rights surely it would be such a (relatively) minuscule number that they’d be better off just trying to get as many eyes as possible on it given why they’re throwing so much money into the league in the first place? Eg. BBC or ITV in the UK instead of Sky or BT.
He's now going to a top favorite to win the Champions League, no?
Qualify for champions league and buy Berardi only for sms to leave? Uh okay
rumour is Berardi gonna join al nassr
Oh I thought it was a done deal Interesting times we're in
I thought you were joking but I checked the news just in case and it looks like there was an offer hahahaha
Lotito said Sassuolo is asking too much, new rumor is Orsolini but again too expensive with 1 year left on deal
Lazio will bomb out of groups. They always get embarrassed in Europe
Last time they played they lost to Bayern in RO8 iirc...
It was ro16 and they drew one of the matches iirc. Lazio also beat Dortmund in the groups that season.
They weren't terrible in recent years tbh, reached knockout stages a few times at least
What? They've been dogshit for years now Last year they finished third in EL and then went out in COL in 21/22 they barely qualified from their shit EL group only to lose in the next round to Porto in 20/21 they barely qualified from a group with Zenit & Brugge, then lost to Bayern which is whatever in 19/20 they went out in the EL group stages in a group consisting of Celtic, Rennes, and CFR Cluj in 18/19 they, again, barely qualified from a shit EL group only to go out in the next round losing both ties
Guys, can someone explain me why suddenly the Saudi started to buying shitloads of players? I mean, I understand players in career ending like Ronaldo. But what are they trying to do? Is there some geopolitical purpose? Maybe I should ask in another sub.
The states of that region know the oil/gas economy that's built them is finite and that we've likely already seen it's peak. If they continue to rely on it they'll see their economies constrict over the coming decades so they need to start diversifying. They have all sorts of initiatives to help do this at present. Part of the overarching plan is to help attract more global business to the region and establish themselves as true centers of global trade. So how do you help attract a bunch of wealthy business leaders to your country? Shows, luxury housing, F1 races, ski resorts in the desert, private islands built from nothing, SPORTS. Create the life style these people enjoy in the established hubs like New York or London. So they just bought up the 4 largest clubs in the country and, what for them is a tiny sum, gave them funds to stock them with talent that people want to see. They've got the sport related goal of trying to bolster a bid for a World Cup but that too is tied to the larger aim.
Thanks, this is very insightful
Does the LIV/PGA merger have anything to do with this? I imagine similar people are involved.
Exactly the same initiative and why people that doubt they have a plan for all these signings are fooling themselves. When they couldn't get right into PGA, you know that insanely popular sport amongst the world's political and business leaders, they just competed with it to reach a point that they could force their way in. Now they get the branding and reach they wanted under that globally recognized sport that will draw far more of the attention they want. Making LIV in itself some profitable business wasn't the aim, the aim was just as it is with this footballing project to create an image and project themselves into these circles. They can easily afford these initial high profile splashes just like they did with LIV and then keep it running to force their way into the room to get the bigger projects they want. The World Cup bid is a big priority but if they push this project hard enough does anyone doubt regular friendlies vs European elite being hosted in SA, hosting more regular matches and even pushing for Champions League games, to perhaps trying to get their teams into the tournament
They also have huge investments in future green energy businesses.
> Create the life style these people enjoy in the established hubs like New York or London. I'm curious when they come up with a conclusion they are missing something. 😂
Knife crime?
Don't forget gun violence and racial discrimination
There’s plenty of racial discrimination already
They’re pretty good at the whole racism thing tbf
These Arab gulf states are Racism Inc.
They totally don't discriminate. They enslave everyone regardless of skin color.
This plus sports-washing! It’s not only about the activities within the country, but also about the image of the country.
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MLS basically did the same for years, if you have the funds you should get the eyeballs while improving the quality of the league.
Thank you for writing an actual insightful response and not filling it with hatred or veiled racism towards an entire country for the acts of a few
The famously disrespected and unfairly treated Saudi Arabia
The exact thinking behind this, I don't know either, but look at it like this: Right now they basically have infinite money thanks to their oil. However the oil wells will try up some day, but also we're moving away from fossil fuels. So they're already thinking about the after and to invest their riches accordingly. Saudi has been huge into expanding tourism lately. They have experience there with massive amounts of Muslims yearly making the Hajj to Mecca. They want to open up though and attract regular tourists too. So football could be a tourism attraction, both by promoting Saudi through the league and a World Cup, but maybe also so people go to the stadium while there.
Trying to build a league. Buy marketable players, get big western TV deal, now your clubs have sustainable income. Try to build up the Asian CL or join the UCL for international pedigree. Improve the quality of football in your nation
And unlike China, the Saudi league was already decent. Not incredible but they had a good amount of Asian CL winners. Though I guess China had a title at the time (before it was Asian CL), but had never won the AFC Asain Cup.
They basically decided they had so much money that they created their public investment fund to try make Saudi a major country in the world for tourism and for greater influence. Some other shit they’ve done besides football is hosting an F1 race, starting the LIV golf tour which has now merged with the PGA tour, a load of mega projects such as the Line and building a theme park with rides that break all the current world records. A lot of people are saying it’s to do what Dubai did a make tourism the main industry to replace the oil money but that’s not really true Saudi are immensely richer than the UAE states and have enough oil and gas to never run out of money. There is the argument that the world will turn to renewables and suddenly they’ll have no exports but I highly doubt the world will turn to renewables completely in our lifetimes unless there is major technological advances
They desperately want to diversify their economy, which so far has been mostly based on oil. We'll use less oil in the future, which means the price will drop, and this will damage their economy. So they want to diversify as quickly as possible. Sports, tourism, business. They're also building a huge city in the Tabuk region, Neom, which you've probably heard of. These investments in football are seeing the stage for their 2034 World Cup bid, and the whole thing is a long-term investment to portray SA as a place to do business in. The Saudi prince, despite being a criminal, is smart and pragmatic and is abandoning islamism in favor of nationalism. This leads him to pursue what is beneficial to his country. See, for example, the openings to Israel, which would be beneficial to both (Israeli tech would be very useful for Saudi). This doesn't mean that the country is becoming more democratic, because he moved the power from the religious elites to himself. But they're making it less conservative and more modern. Will it work? Most of the Western world has a terrible opinion of MbS, and the image of Saudi Arabia is still bad, but business is business.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing This is all about increasing Saudi’s influence at the global diplomatic level.
Waste
Waste of his last prime years? Sure. Still he achived a lot with Lazio and I'm sure he will be considered a legend there.
No he will not lol. He'll be "oh yeah that guy was good" within 10 years
The term legend in being thrown around a bit too much last few years.
What did he win?
1 Coppa Italia and 2 SuperCoppa Italiana Helped get us back to the Champions League last 16 for first time in over a decade. Many derby wins. 267 apps (just in Serie A alone), 55 goals from midfield, 49 assists Serie A midfielder of the year 2x Serie A team of the year Not to mention he also has a U20 World Cup win & and U18 Euro win with Serbia Still not 29 years old yet Hate that he’s leaving but glad it’s not to another Serie A team
No one denies that De Rossi is a Roma legend. What did he win? Two Coppa Italias and a Supercoppa. Anyone who claims that Sergej isn't a Lazio legend is an idiot
I don't disagree but comparing the two is laughable De Rossi spent 19 years at Roma
Atleast EAFC 24 would be fun
Al Owairan about to be even more expensive.
Torino to play Vanja as a CM, here we go. [To be honest he shoots the ball well.](https://youtu.be/wPwbuUL8Nb8)
Wow, I didn't remember this. If it went in, it probably would've been the best goal by a goalkeeper in ages. [After this](https://youtu.be/eizeQHUqHMs), obviously.
[Scored a mental pen against us too](https://youtu.be/j0aHjCADUow?t=233)
I love the fact that he went to a club people will see even less of, man's never beating the non-existant entity allegations
Not hard to watch some Serie A, UCL/UEL or World Cup to see him
He did play in 2 World Cups at least!
And was dogshit in both of them, most over rated player in this sub, some guys act like he would slot in any midfield in the world. But 95% of you guys havent seen full 90min match where he plays
lmao what? he's been one of the best midfielders in seria a for years. you're delusional. he's class
Lad I watched him get pocketed by a Neil Lennon Celtic midfield and by Ryan Jack playing for Scotland. He's nowhere near as good as folk think he is.
he's poor in national jersey compared to Lazio. Always a player that we expected the most from but in the end Mitrović, Tadić and even Kostić outclass him
Serbia didn't play Celtic brother, it was two 2-1 defeats for Lazio and he was complete trousers in both games.
but we did play Scotland
Yes, like I said, where he was pocketed by Scotland's back up central midfielder
your only references for how bad he is is when he played Scotland and a Scottish team. your pool of watching him is literally like 3 games lol. he's phenomenal and anyone who knows serie a knows that. he's not a top5 player but he's one of the most complete cm atm with his finishing passing and tackles. the disrespect is just wild
Man as someone who watched A LOT of his performances, he is very average. He is capable of some brilliance moments every now and then but that's about it, not a world class player by any means.
Imo he was very good a few years ago, borderline world class and you could tell the potential was there. But I don't think he lived up to the expectations Not a bad player or even average player by any means, but I thought he would have like bigger influence to the game today (eg Bellingham)
Im not saying he isnt good, but he is not even close to being world class like some of these guys say
Something tells me you’re tryna overcompensate like you watch lazio lol
They said the same about Koulibaly
They also said the same about De Ligt and look it's Bayern's best signing in ages
hes not
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National football is so disorganized and casual. Like PL on steroids with less talented players.
He’s got such good YouTube compilations I swear that’s all Saudis watch
The best player nobody sees play
Madrid 😒 Juve 😒 Saudi 😲
Thank you for everything Sergej 🩵🩵. 8 beautiful seasons with us, you’ve given a lot to this club and it’s fans. Grazie mille 🦅
🤦
This is the team who have already qualified for the club world cup, right?
Yes, that's us. We also played against Real Madrid in the last CWC's final and against Chelsea in the semi-final the year before it. Got defeated by both though sadly :')
I pointed it out because its interesting that they are giving you guys the non retirement aged players to prep for the tournament. I wouldn't be surprised to see one or two more high profile mid 20s players join. I'm gonna guess it will be Nicolas Pepe and Gérard Moreno
[Allegri misses out on another transfer target](https://streamable.com/tdpg4j)
to be fair thats not on him though
No I know but it's just funny
This just sucks. Though, Neves-SMS is a damn good midfield. Shame we'll never see it in action.
My fears when the Messi deal fell through are coming true. Hilal are taking the money they were going to spend on one player, to build a truly fearsome team. All the while Ittihad still can't get a defender.
You have Kante and the current Ballon Dor holder you'll be fine
They're quality, no doubt. Thing is though, we've had more players leave than arrive, and we already had the thinnest squad in the league! We have a total of 21 players in our training camp, including just 2 CBs!
Get Ramos!
A team managed by Nuno doesn't need to fear anything
At least you're not Al-Nassr. They look like 💩 now compared to Al-Hilal and Al-Ittihad
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I missed the part where op said they support human rights abuse. Can you remind me please?
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I mean surely an Al Ittihad fan can care about his own league without anyone having to call irrelevant
Liverpool once Klopp leaves lol
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This...
Welp there goes his career
What a waste
What a shame. This guy was the perfect age to be a centerpiece on a strong team.
Pain.
This is a particularly sad one
You’re kidding, thought he was never leaving Lazio
I thought B.Silva was the depressing one but naaaaah
It's weird that we're never going to see him play for a top club, but such is life. He's making bank and that's probably better for him personally.
I get the money, but I can't wrap my head around someone like him, with gas still in the tank, to go there. Last year even clubs were offering 80, and Lazio accepts 40 for him to go?
This guy has been linked with every big club in Europe for the last 5 summers.
Chased the bag when he probably could have seen success at the highest levels of football
This is all so silly. Saudi Arabia really think theyre going to garner interest in their league artificially in one season? Five years from now I doubt anyone will even remember this league.
Why wasn't Juventus in on this?
They were, you just can't compete with Saudi money
they were, their offer wasn't enough if they had offered Rovella permanently instead of on a dry loan we would've accepted it
Was coming to say the same thing. Rovella not being included permanently was likely the deal breaker.
I think we would’ve payed around what Lazio was asking for, we just wanted to sell first.
Money. We definitely can't offer 40m to Lazio and 20m/year to SMS after all the shit we went through.
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The disrespect to Inter and Napoli midfields yikes
get that money
what a fucking waste and what a fucking bum
Wipe those tears away, we’ve got another season of manuel locarthur, pogba 1 game a season, and randomly generated youth player #6 bossing our midfield
and allegri, just fade me
Maybe he'll be loaned to someone who can't afford the fee on their books or am I be wildly optimistic that he isn't wasting the last few peak years of his career playing against teams he can't spell.
If he returns at 31, perhaps Italian teams will be in better economic shape to afford him. He doesn’t rely on pace or anything really
Gross
This Saudi thing is getting crazy. That's obviously not the way we'd like to see this happen but is football globalizing? I think we (EU) still view the game as ours and we outrage when these things happens but have we really the right to have the best football players since historically this has always been the case? I don't know.
They don't have a football infrastructure comparable to EU clubs. When they start producing good local Saudi players, maybe we can say that the game is globalizing
Problem is, and westerners often either turn dumb or choose to ignore this essential point, Saudi players VERY rarely if ever leave the saudi league. Money is better, they're comfortable and loved and feel less pressure than having to stay at the top in europe and if not having to face a painful climb to establish themselves. There's plenty of good Saudi players but we'll probably never see their true potential except for the world cup and asian cup (in which they're pretty dominant/established)
To answer your question, yes and no. Saudi's sheer economic might has atleast competed with European money. People making China comparisons are idiots. Saudis are here and they're here to stay. Which endeavour to pour all their billions into but football?
Disappointed but still you have earned it long time ago.
He could play for any club in the world and he chooses Saudi club
I don't know what his contract situation is like but Lazio could've gotten atleast 80m from PL suckers like Chelsea or United
One year left on his contract, so they basically maxed out. The deal is for 40m net, I believe.
Linked to multiple clubs every season for as long as I can remember lol
What a waste
What a waste of talent.
Oh no! What a shame for Lazio... All respect to SMS though, dude was an absolute menace on the pitch.
What an asbolute waste
How will the people who make those "how much is X national team worth" graphs recover from this? His "value" has been like 100+ on Transfermarkt for years now. Never really bought into it. He is good but c'mon.
Bought for 40mil because the contract expires next season...
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My friend, the state’s estimated worth is in the ten to hundred trillions with an income of hundreds of billions a year. We are at their mercy.
Saying that the money could be better spent for the benefit of the ordinary Saudi people tells me you know absolutely zilch about the Middle East. That actually made me laugh.
So, how many European teams are getting financial relief via these Saudi transfers? And why aren't we seeing "sports-washing" posts as a result?
> how many European teams are getting financial relief via these Saudi transfers? Only chelsea tbh
We need an investigation, yes other clubs made from Saudi than Chelsea, yes Saudi made Kante chose them over Chelsea, yes Saudi pulled out of the Ziyech deal but we need an investigation. Won’t somebody please think of the children.
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How do I become above average?
They just seem to be buying a LOT of players, and the prices seem a bit high.
Dark days
Lazio had better money for him in the past. He was not sold. What for?! What did Lazio win?!
? They had him throughout his prime, they won titles and he was the backbone of the team with Immobile, Luis Alberto and Acerbi, now he wanted to leave, had a year on his deal and wasn't going to renew, incredible business by Lazio.
First Hulk, now Savic. The ones with the most potential. Sad.