Madness Saudi transfers: 2 billion francs and it “doesn’t even pull the eyelid”

At 31 years old, Édouard Mendy has the best goalkeeper age. The man from Senegal, born in France, Champions League winner with Chelsea, world goalkeeper of 2021: he will play in the desert at Al-Ahli next season. The newly promoted paid the Londoners £18m, well above the current market value of Mendy, who came on as a substitute for Chelsea after failing to match his 2021 level.

The news is no longer surprising. Saudi Arabia is spending heavily and there is hardly a footballer from the major European leagues who has not received a tempting offer from the sheikhs.

World Eleven plays in Saudi Arabia

You can already assemble a world elf: Édouard Mendy (Al-Ahli), Kalidou Koulibaly (Al-Hilal), Álvaro González (Al-Nassr), Christian Cueva (Al-Fateh), Rubén Neves (Al-Hilal), N’Golo Kante (Al-Ittihad), Marcelo Brozovic (Al-Nassr), Diogo Jota (Al-Ittihad), Roberto Firmino (Al-Ahli), Cristiano Ronaldo (Al-Nassr), Karim Benzema (Al-Ittihad), Coach : Steven Gerrard (Al Ettifaq). The Saudis have already invested almost two billion in new players: in transfer fees, money, salary, bonuses…

What surprises me is the calmness with which we now accept this. The human rights situation in Saudi Arabia is extremely worrying. It is clear that the sheikhs are whitewashing their political image by investing in sports. Sport works as a PR vehicle.

When Ronaldo moved to the desert in December, we rubbed our eyes in disbelief and were outraged at the amounts. Now the eyelid no longer twitches at the many transfer reports. Apparently according to the motto: you can’t get outraged endlessly; so the outrage will give way at some point.

Absurd amounts in various sports

The backdrop to the Saudi esports offensive is the country’s strategy and vision to become a well-connected major player in the world. Because oil reserves are finite, the economy must diversify away from oil. The entertainment industry and tourism are part of it, and sport is key to the development of these areas. The Saudis are therefore not only spending absurd amounts of money on football, but also on golf, motor sports, chess, handball, soon tennis, even winter sports and eSports, where the FIFA World Cup will be held in Riyadh in July.

Where is professional football going? I can’t estimate it. But what I do know is that with a lot of money you can buy a lot. The Saudis have already posted about golf, and they are well on their way to football. They will probably get the World Cup in 2034.

And they will try to join European football. Perhaps in the form of a Super League, where top clubs from Europe compete against top clubs from Saudi Arabia. And they will continue to buy into European teams, perhaps even take over FIFA, and push their influence and power to the limit.

Major sporting events are coming up

But before that, there are other gigantic sporting events in Saudi Arabia: for example, in December 2023, the World Cup for football clubs. In 2027 the Asian football championships and in 2029 the Asian Winter Games, where they want to create a winter atmosphere with artificial snow in the heart of the desert: slalom with a view of the Red Sea, biathlon in the mountain desert. Everything is possible with money if the earth still exists in its usual form.

Back to Edward Mendy. I’ve always found his career remarkable. At a young age he was still active in the deep French amateur field, temporarily unemployed, but it was not until the age of 24 that he made the leap to professional football, where he temporarily rose to the best in his field.

Somehow I can’t blame him for opening his wallet again and getting himself paid so well for a few more years that he can live a nice, carefree life after his football career. Who knows when this crazy bubble will burst.