During the summer transfer window, the Saudi Pro League was the division on everybody’s lips. The zero-to-200 mph growth of the controversial league had been kickstarted by Cristiano Ronaldo joining Al-Nassr FC the season before. This summer saw Karim Benzema, Neymar, N’Golo Kante, Roberto Firmino and Jordan Henderson among the many top European talents to join him.
Speculation was rife over whether the SPL was about to become the world’s next footballing superpower. Whether the pull of mega-millions for the players and selling clubs would create a vacuum in Europe, sucking in the very best players and making the Saudi game an unmissable product.
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Now, with this in mind, tell me the score of any Saudi Pro League game from last weekend. Just one. No? Tell me the name of one player who scored an SPL last weekend, with the exception of Cristiano Ronaldo. Expand it further; which was your favourite Saudi game this season?
If your answers to the above were “no idea” or “please let me say Ronaldo” then you’re not alone. For all the vast column inches dedicated to the league in pre-season, the interest has not been sustained. A league many thought could disrupt the established order is just sort of… there.
When Lionel Messi bewitches Major League Soccer with another Inter Miami wonder-strike, the clips are on social media in seconds. Websites write doe-eyed articles about this ageing genius. But when was the last time Ronaldo was marvelled at in the same way? This is not another tiresome comparison between them as players. Rather, it is intended to illustrate that the two greatest players of our time each play in relatively obscure leagues now. One is still eulogised when he scores and the other isn’t.
The same is true throughout the wider game. There has been lots of talk about the fact Real Madrid are missing Benzema up front, but precious little about what he’s doing now. Henderson’s controversial move to Al-Ettifaq stirred up ideological concerns but nobody seems to know or care much how he’s actually playing. Is Kante still the effervescent midfield presence he always was? Is Firmino still a gifted and tactically intriguing forward? Have any of the 97 Chelsea players that went to Saudi Arabia in the summer done anything?
This is the issue with trying to make a world-class football league overnight. The Saudi Pro League expected that signing some of the world’s most prominent players would immediately make theirs one of the finest competitions around. The initial buzz suggested they might be right.
But getting people excited during a transfer window is like shooting fish in a barrel. This is a time where people will track flights because they’re convinced the plane contains that new left back their team desperately needs. A heady period where you obsess over the fact your cousin’s mate’s Dad who works at a service station swears he saw Zlatan Ibrahimovic filling up near Watford Gap.
Against this fevered backdrop, of course fans would run away with the idea of this upstart league buying up the world’s biggest talent. These supporters had skin in the game. Players were being bought from their clubs. Massive cash injections were coming the other way. But that involvement is over for supporters of English clubs now, at least until the next transfer window. Without the looming threat of their best players being lured away by Saudi clubs, most international fans have simply moved on.
The league itself is increasing in popularity in its homeland, but not at the incredible rate that those behind it predicted when they began making room for themselves at elite football’s top table. While the online reach of the SPL goes further than ever and fans are aware of the league and its players, there is a long way to go before the big five of European football are truly at risk. If anything the SPL has been a convenience. A place to sell ageing big names who garner high wages.
The SPL experiment is far from over. No doubt we will hear much more from the league this January when the transfer window opens again. But it will be interesting to see how much is spoken about the actual games taking place between now and then. The Saudi league offers untold riches but it also does seem to bring a certain veil of anonymity.
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