Neel Shelat assesses the current landscape in one of the world’s most interesting player trading markets, which is no longer just the preserve of aging stars chasing one last payday, and where registration rules are creating new opportunities
December 2022 marked the beginning of a new era for football in the Middle East. After the FIFA World Cup concluded with an unforgettable climax in Qatar, an arguably longer-lasting impact was made by Cristiano Ronaldo’s transfer to Al Nassr a few days later. His arrival was the first step in a transformation of the Saudi Pro League, as the division’s top clubs spent eyewatering sums of money on transfer fees in subsequent windows and lured some of the world’s best players with astronomical wages.
Even prior to these developments, the Saudi Pro League as well as other top Arab leagues had quite a reputation for dishing out exorbitant sums of money to stars who played there, perhaps paying for reputation (and reputational benefit) as much or more than footballing value. World-renowned players including Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, and Samuel Eto’o spent some time with clubs in the region at the end of their careers, undoubtedly setting themselves up nicely for retirement from a financial standpoint. Such signings led to the divisions being seen as little more than ‘retirement leagues’ by Europe’s elite, but that would be a massively inadequate understanding of the situation at this point in time.
Over the last couple of seasons, SPL clubs have spent around €1.25 billion on transfer fees alone. While the biggest names such as Ronaldo, Neymar, and Karim Benzema have likely moved there to gradually wind down their playing careers and cash in some last big paychecks, the majority of the 166 foreign players in the league cannot be grouped with them. Though many fans and experts seem to lament when a talented player moves to the Arabian Peninsula relatively earlier on in his career, it would be unwise for decision-makers at clubs to hold such a view.
Indeed, the Saudi Pro League – along with the neighbouring Qatar Stars League and UAE Pro League to lesser extents – is emerging as a great market for the rest of the world to buy from. This is theoretically true in the case of both domestic and foreign players, but this piece will solely focus on the latter category. At least so far, there have been incredibly few cases of players from these countries moving to foreign clubs (Saud Abdulhamid, who moved from Al-Hilal to AS Roma in the summer, is a rare recent example). There are various factors at play including the federations’ interests, wages and personal dynamics, but that would be a different topic to explore.
As far as foreign players are concerned, everyone is well aware of the fact that a transfer to a top club in the region can make the selling club and player a lot more money than they would anywhere else, but there now also is growing potential to strike bargains when buying players from the region.
Opportunities Created by Squad Registration Rules
The cynic’s response to the idea that teams from around the world can strike bargain deals to sign players from Arab clubs would be that the teams in question would hardly ever be willing to sell. Looking back at historical records, this does not appear to be an inaccurate assessment. For example, record SPL champions Al-Hilal had only struck 15 deals for player sales before last summer. The nature of club ownership in the region means that clubs do not need to rely on revenue generated from player trading, so the vast majority of departees only leave at the end of their contracts.
Although the financial situation has not changed for the most part, many Arab clubs now find themselves in a position where they are forced to sell players. The main reasons behind this are the leagues’ squad registration rules.
A couple of seasons ago, all Asian clubs had to assemble heavily domestic squads due to the AFC’s 3+1 foreign player quota (with the additional spot reserved for a foreign player from Asia). They expanded the limit to 5+1 in 2022 and abolished it ahead of the 2024/25 season, instead asking clubs to follow their domestic leagues’ rules.
The Saudi Pro League, for its part, has been steadily increasing its foreign player quota. The limit went up from four to six in 2017 and further to eight in 2022. Currently, every single SPL club’s foreign player quota is full. A young foreign player quota was added ahead of the current season to allow teams to register an additional two foreigners who are 21 years old or younger, which 15 of the 18 clubs have utilised. Similar rules also exist in Qatar and the UAE.
While SPL clubs have not sustained the level of spending they showed in the blockbuster summer of 2023, their transfer strategy clearly was not a flash in the pan. They spent close to €500 million on transfer fees ahead of this season and have continued to be linked with some big names since. At this point, though, any SPL club looking to sign a foreign player older than 21 years old will first have to make space in their squad. This is why they are being compelled to sell before contracts expire.
From a pure business standpoint, this is not a good situation for clubs to be in. Squad registration rules severely disadvantage them at the negotiating table, allowing prospective buyers to lowball them with the knowledge that they are desperate to offload players while targeting a new signing. However, as aforementioned, this is not an issue for these clubs as most of them are directly or indirectly government-owned or supported. That is the case in both Qatar and the UAE, while the situation only slightly changed in Saudi Arabia ahead of the boom in their transfer spend as the clubs were supposedly privatised. For all practical purposes, though, top Saudi clubs remain government-controlled as the Public Investment Fund (PIF) have a majority stake in the big four of Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli, while other government ministries and subsidiaries control the vast majority of professional clubs in the country.
Additionally, the wider perception of these leagues means that players’ transfer valuations depreciate after they move over – almost regardless of their performances. A great case in point is the fact that the top 50 SPL players by Transfermarkt value have all seen drops in their latest market value updates, including everyone from top scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic to Neymar, who has spent over a year’s worth of time out injured after joining Al-Hilal in 2023.
There have already been precedents of relatively low-cost transfers out of the league in recent windows. Perhaps the most well-known move in Europe was Jordan Henderson’s departure from Al Ettifaq, but that came after a contract termination due to other speculated factors. Instead, Seko Fofana’s return to France is the archetype this piece aims to highlight. After joining Al Nassr from Lens for €25m in 2023, he was left with no space in the squad for this season as the club made more foreign signings. The Ivorian international had to spend the first half of the season out on loan and recently sealed a €20m transfer to Rennes. Les Rouge et Noirs have certainly been paying close attention to this trend as they also signed Jota in a very similar situation last summer. The Portuguese winger moved to France in an €8m deal just one year after Celtic sold him to Al Ittihad for close to €30m! Again, that was because he could not be registered due to the foreign player quota.
While clubs can evidently sign players for significantly lower transfer fees from Arab clubs, they ought to be careful about wages. The top teams in these leagues offer salaries that are multiple times greater than what almost all others can afford, so players have to accept big pay cuts to move back away. Even so, their wages may still appear inflated when compared to their teammates. For instance, Jota was reportedly on a gross salary of €225,000 per week in Saudi Arabia. His current wage at Rennes is about a fifth of that but still makes him the club’s second-highest earner. His performances, however, have not been up to that standard as he has only registered a couple of goal involvements so far this season.
The (thus far) disappointing outcome of Jota’s transfer to Rennes should not put off other teams, though. There is a perception that the quality of football in these leagues is worlds apart from the top European leagues, but that is not wholly accurate. While it is true that there is a vast difference in quality from the top to the bottom of these divisions, it is worth noting that the title contenders are excellent sides who have also shown some canny recruitment of players. According to TransferLab’s Club Strength+ Global Rankings, the big four SPL teams are all among the top 100 clubs in the world, with defending champions Al Hilal up in 37th. Qatar and the UAE are a step or two below them but do have a handful of teams in the top 250, so they should not be entirely ignored either. Indeed, the wider increase in elite club strength among members of the Asian federation has pushed quality up all over due to participation in the ACLE.
With all of that established, there are a couple of categories of players that teams should be keeping an eye on:
Experienced Campaigners
The majority of foreign players at Arab clubs are very close to or in the latter half of their careers. Such players would not be great long-term options for most clubs around the world, but they could well be great short-term signings at relatively lower costs as long as their wages are kept in check. There is quite a long list of such players – so much so that we can almost form a full squad of them from just the Saudi Pro League!

There are a fair few household names in there who need no further introduction. While 37-year-old Karim Benzema is very likely to end his career at Al-Ittihad, the likes of Sadio Mané (32), Roberto Firmino (33), N’Golo Kanté (32) and Marcelo Brozovix (32) should all still have a couple of years at a very high level in them. Aymeric Laporte (30) and João Cancelo (30) should remain at such a level for even longer.
Among the others, there are a lot of attackers to watch out for. Chief among them is Brazilian ex-Barcelona winger Malcolm, who has been very impressive for Al-Hilal after joining them from Zenit St. Petersburg in 2023. He scored 25 goals and set up 12 others across all competitions last season and already has 10 goal involvements this term. TransferLab believes that any Tier 2 team should be glad to have him.

Dutch winger Steven Bergwijn only moved to Saudi Arabia in September, but at 27 years old, he still should have a lot of playing time ahead of him. TransferLab currently considers him excellent for a Tier 2 club.

An interesting name that pops up is Saviour Godwin, who is currently at lowly SPL side Al Akhdoud. TransferLab thinks the Nigerian winger has the quality star for a Tier 3 side, so he could be a very interesting target for many teams all around the world.

Some other attackers worth monitoring include Riyad Mahrez (33, Al-Ahli), Morrocan Olympics star Soufiane Rahimi (28, Al-Ain), his teammate Togolese striker Kodjo Fo-Doh Laba (32), Mexican international Julián Quiñones (27, Al-Qadsiah), Aleksandar Mitrovic (30, Al-Hilal), Zambian forward Fashion Sakala (27, Al-Fayha) and former Aston Villa winger Trézéguet (30, Al-Rayyan).
In midfield, Rúben Neves has been a clear standout for Al-Hilal. Regularly given time and space on the ball, he has shown deep-lying playmaking abilities that even a Tier 1 team might value.

His fellow Portuguese midfielder Otávio has also starred in a much more advanced creative role for Al-Nassr.

Neves’ regular partner Sergej Milinkovic-Savic has done well in a more box-to-box role, particularly standing out in possession.

There are a number of other top-quality midfielders plying their trade in the region. Some of them previously played for top European clubs including the likes of Fabinho (31, Al-Ittihad), Marco Verratti (32, Al-Arabi), Franck Kessié (28, Al-Ahli) and Houssem Aouar (26, Al-Ittihad) while others are perhaps somewhat underrated such as Cameron Puertas (26, Al-Qadsiah), Yong-woo Park (31, Al-Ain) and Saeed Ezatolahi (28, Shabab AlAhli).
As is often the case in leagues with foreign player quotas, the defensive positions in these clubs’ squads have a much larger proportion of domestic players. Naturally then, there are few standout foreigners in this department, but a couple of names worth noting are ex-Roma centre back Roger Ibañez (26, Al-Ahli) Iago Santos (32, Shabab AlAhli) and Youcef Atal (28, Al Sadd). The same can not really be said of the goalkeepers, though there are some good shot-stoppers such as Mailson (28, Al-Taawoun).
Young Talents
In the past, a young foreigner moving to an Arab club was mostly seen as a ploy by the concerned federation to naturalise him. Indeed, there have been many such cases in the past, but the recent inclusion of young foreign player quotas has changed the picture. Saudi, Qatari and Emirati clubs have now started to bring in even more highly-rated talents from all over the world at a much greater rate, with the vast majority not getting naturalised.
There already has been a notable case of a youngster moving on from a club in the region. Ecuadorian international Gonzalo Plata joined Qatari giants Al-Sadd from Real Valladolid for €12m in 2023 and did well for them in the 2023/24 season but then decided to move away. In the end, Flamengo were able to sign for less than €4m.
This pattern might be repeated, and another winger seems best placed to do it. Ângelo Gabriel definitely is one to watch as he has shown sparks of great promise in relatively limited game time.

There is quite a long list of positional peers to keep an eye on including Gabriel Pereira (23, Al-Rayyan), teammates Mateo Sanabria (20, Al-Ain) and Matías Segovia (22), and Giovani (21, Al-Sadd) among many others. Moussa Diaby (25, Al-Ittihad) and Rodri (24, Al-Arabi) are a touch older but could also make big moves back to Europe. Oumar Traoré (22, Al Jazira) and Guilherme Bala (23, Shabab AlAhli) might be a couple of others, though they have recently been given Emirati citizenship and so could be naturalised.
Most of the standout names are in attack, but one notable exception is midfielder Ezequiel Fernández. After joining Al Qadsiah from Boca Juniors last summer, he has continued to impress so much that TransferLab thinks any Tier 2 club should jump to sign him if given the opportunity.

Others to watch include fellow midfielder Alexsander (21, Al-Ahli) as well as centre-backs Mohammed Simakan (24, Al-Nassr), Robert Renan (21, Al-Shabab) and Renan (22, Shabab AlAhli). Full back Erik (23, Al-Ain) could be another one on the list, though he has also recently been given Emirati citizenship.
All things considered, it should be abundantly evident why clubs from all around the world must keep a close eye on the top Arabian leagues. Those who are smart enough to see past the stereotypes could easily strike some bargain deals in upcoming windows.
Stats courtesy Transfermarkt, Fbref and Capology.
Header image copyright IMAGO / Naushad