The Saudis are here to stay. The complete list of transfers after Neymar's last one.

We have written before that the interest shown by the Saudis in football this year is quite unusual. Below we analyze the combination of these.

The latest thunderous transfer is that of Neymar

Following Neymar's latest shock move to Al-Hilal, it's worth taking a look back at all the big-name transfers that have moved to Saudi Arabia this transfer window. This is the first year that the Saudis have shown so much interest in improving their league and surely if they continue at this rate, in a short period of time their league will be an interesting option for great younger players to join the Saudi league.< /p>

The question that many will ask is "why?". Why are they investing so much money when it's almost certain they won't get it back. The answer is, "to win in the future". At the moment, the money the Saudis spend on the transfers they bring into their country is hard to recoup, especially for big names like Neymar's latest signing. What the Saudis aim for is to improve their league and win in the future and there are many ways they can achieve this.

Ronaldo is now "old" in the Pro League

The anti-Champions League

Initially, as we have written before, there is still the possibility that at some point, the Saudi league might join the European competitions or maybe new competitions will be formed outside of the federations like UEFA, where big European and non-European teams will compete with each other. For the first, it is possible for UEFA to include the Saudi league if it gains a lot of prestige and there is a large television revenue from the entire football public who will want to see big football names, regardless of which league they play in. For the second, if any body creates a tournament between big teams, it should be someone with enough money and experience. Saudi Arabia has the first, the second does not. Thus, by improving the infrastructure and the quality of the league, the Saudis will gain the experience of managing a large-scale competition such as the Champions League, for example.

Another big name that moved to Saudi Arabia is Manet

The revenue that goes out

Another factor is the inflow of money. As is known, several Saudi businessmen have either bought or simply have shares in teams and this happened because they saw that football is a highly professional business where a serious investment effort can provide quite a large profit. This was also noticed by the Saudi government, where football is now the national sport and a huge group of spectators watch foreign teams on television. Therefore, the influx of big names will bring better TV deals not only domestic, but also foreign.

The blurring of the "bad" image

A third factor is improving the image of the country itself. Currently, Saudi Arabia is included, if not in the five, then certainly in the ten countries with the worst human rights. This is something that repels tourism in Saudi Arabia and the origin of workers, athletes, etc. And of course this negative record is not only bad for their tourism, but for the perception of the country in general. So Saudi Arabia wants to blur this bad image, "selling" a pleasant image of famous athletes. So instead of thinking about the lack of freedom of speech, women's rights, the country's labor law, etc. Let's think about K.Ronaldo, Benzema, Neymar, etc.

Oil

A fourth factor is oil, specifically limited oil. Right now, the country's main revenue is largely oil, but the Saudis know that someday this will end. Thus, the Public Investment Fund of the country has long since launched an investment campaign in various sectors such as energy, finance, sports, etc. for the independence of oil production as the main income.

Below is the full list of famous players who have moved to S.Arabia.

🟡🔵 Al-Nasr:

🔝 Cristiano Ronaldo

➖ Manet

➖ Brozovich

➖ Fofana

➖ Alex Telles

🔜 Luis Alberto (Lazio)

🔜 Aymeric Laporte

🔵⚫️ Al-Hilal:

🔝 Neymar

➖ Coulibaly

➖ Milinkovic-Savic

➖ Ruben Neves

➖ Malcolm

🔜 Verratti (PSG)

🔜 Mitrovic (Fulham)

🔜 Yassin Bono (Seville)

🔜 Lucas Digne (Villa)

🟡⚫️ Al-Ittihad:

🔝 Karim Benzema

➖ Cante

➖ Fabinho

➖ Jota

🟢⚪️ Al-Ahli:

🔝 Firmino

➖ Mahrez

➖ Saint-Maximin

➖ Kesi

➖ Ibanies

🔜 Zielinski (Napoli)

🟢🟢 Al-Ettifaq:

🔝 Jordan Henderson

➖ Jack Hendry

➖ Moussa Dembele