Saudi Professional League 2023/2024

[borovichok]

Luiz Felipe is the last player Al Ittihad going to buy in this summer.
They hired many superstar players and now Al Ittihad said they hired this player from Real Betis.
Felipe left Lazio and joined Real Betis last summer and now this Italian is going to play for Al Ittihad.

But the problem for Al Ittihad is about the number of their foreign players because they currently have nine foreign players and Al Ittihad should remove one player from the list.

 

Saudi clubs are not relenting in the transfer window, making european players their priorities signings. SPL clubs keeps signing European players and forgetting about there own domestic players that have been in existence from the very first day the SPL was launched. Luiz Felipe is the trending new player for Al Ittihad, they probably move a little bit higher and impressive SPL games this season, which is actually a good news. Just given them enough time to adapt to the new system they have found themselves, things will definitely fall back normal as if it was European football. 

[Sithara007]

✂✂✂✂
But the problem for Al Ittihad is about the number of their foreign players because they currently have nine foreign players and Al Ittihad should remove one player from the list.

Well.. it's OK..Al Ittihad had strong attack and midfield, but they were a bit weak on the defense. With the entry of Luiz Felipe, their defense also looks good. He will be working with Ahmed Hegazi and local Saudi players such as Zakaria Hawsawi and Ahmed Bamsaud. That said, their main issue at this point is the lack of co-ordination between Abderrazak Hamdallah and Karim Benzema. The coach (Nuno Espírito Santo) also made some controversial comments about adding Benzema to the squad and that gives a bad impression in front of the media.

[BitcoinHunt3r]

Saudi clubs are not relenting in the transfer window, making european players their priorities signings. SPL clubs keeps signing European players and forgetting about there own domestic players that have been in existence from the very first day the SPL was launched. Luiz Felipe is the trending new player for Al Ittihad, they probably move a little bit higher and impressive SPL games this season, which is actually a good news. Just given them enough time to adapt to the new system they have found themselves, things will definitely fall back normal as if it was European football. 

I don't agree if you say they ignore local players in fact local players can compete with other European players we can see it in the current top scorer list at least 2 local players are on the list Feras Albrikan and Salem Al-Dawsari besides that we can also see Al-Taawoun which is dominated by local players out of 29 players 21 of them are local players and they are currently in 2nd place in the standings. I think this is enough to prove that local players can compete and be relied on and their abilities increase if they continue to play with European players.

[Hirose UK]

✂✂✂✂
But the problem for Al Ittihad is about the number of their foreign players because they currently have nine foreign players and Al Ittihad should remove one player from the list.

Well.. it's OK..Al Ittihad had strong attack and midfield, but they were a bit weak on the defense. With the entry of Luiz Felipe, their defense also looks good. He will be working with Ahmed Hegazi and local Saudi players such as Zakaria Hawsawi and Ahmed Bamsaud. That said, their main issue at this point is the lack of co-ordination between Abderrazak Hamdallah and Karim Benzema. The coach (Nuno Espírito Santo) also made some controversial comments about adding Benzema to the squad and that gives a bad impression in front of the media.

Al Ittihad uses a very large budget to sign these foreign players and it seems that reducing is not the right choice because when European players can be used properly they can make Al Ittihad a great strength and pose a threat to other teams when they meet Al Ittihad.
The difficulty in a team is when it tries to have mature coordination or teamwork and Nuno Espirito Santo cannot just make controversial comments regarding Al Ittihad recruitment of European players and it is his job to be able to train and make all the players capable have competitive teamwork instead of commenting if the addition of Benzema gives a bad impression.

Saudi clubs are not relenting in the transfer window, making european players their priorities signings. SPL clubs keeps signing European players and forgetting about there own domestic players that have been in existence from the very first day the SPL was launched. Luiz Felipe is the trending new player for Al Ittihad, they probably move a little bit higher and impressive SPL games this season, which is actually a good news. Just given them enough time to adapt to the new system they have found themselves, things will definitely fall back normal as if it was European football. 

I don't agree if you say they ignore local players in fact local players can compete with other European players we can see it in the current top scorer list at least 2 local players are on the list Feras Albrikan and Salem Al-Dawsari besides that we can also see Al-Taawoun which is dominated by local players out of 29 players 21 of them are local players and they are currently in 2nd place in the standings. I think this is enough to prove that local players can compete and be relied on and their abilities increase if they continue to play with European players.

That's true and the main aim of recruiting top European players is to make the name of the Saudi League or team more popular and known to everyone around the world.
But taking top European players also cannot be separated from the fact that there are not many local Saudi players who have good potential and almost all of them have entered the Saudi team which has the top ranking in the league so the only way to keep up with the top teams is only by taking top players Europe.
Still there are also names of local players who have quite good achievements such as Salman Al Faraj and Saleh Al-Shehri.

[makishart]

The latest news from what I've heard is that he's going to La Liga and will rejoin Sevilla. Thus he has found a new club and will not go to the Arab League following the players who have already moved there.

Ramos never had an intention of playing in SPL. He wants back to play on his country again before the retirement of him in the football. He has been also getting paid with very low wages which was around 12 times less than what he would be received if he accept saudi club's offer. I think that he is only following his heart to play in sevilla rather than SPL club.
I thought that he would be following his friends (benzema and ronaldo) to play in SPL. he might have different regarding his movement.

Sevilla will need his experience as a defender and that is indeed what they currently need, because they are also in a state of slump in La Liga that has never won. Maybe when Ramos joins it will help them, especially in defense. His experience is unquestionable, and his ability is still quite good.

That's true, but ramos were old enough. He cannot perform like what he used to be. His age definitely affects his performance in sevilla. Sevilla was also recruiting him caused by the club is on crisis.
Sevilla can't afford to recrit expensive players from another club due to the financial problem. I just respect him for following his heart.

[rendravolt]

~snip~

Source: https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1699766604693729570

Al-Ittihad seems to be cooking and they are landing yet another European player into their squad. He is Luis Felipe, who was brought in from Real Betis for a total fee of 25 million euros. Agreements, documents, and medical tests have been completed. As defending champions last season Al-Ittihad certainly want the best for their squad and considering Felipe Luis is a centre-back they would want his services to strengthen the defence. Luis Felipe's journey also seems to be very short with only one season with Real Betis after being successfully brought in last season from Lazio.

~snip~

But the problem for Al Ittihad is about the number of their foreign players because they currently have nine foreign players and Al Ittihad should remove one player from the list.

 

I think Al-Ittihad can bring out other foreign players who have been with this team for quite a long time and what is certain is that the 5 signings this summer are not included in the foreign player exclusion list. If I'm not mistaken, last season Al-Nassr also did the same thing by selling Vincent Aboubakar so he could register Cristiano Ronaldo as an Al-Nassr player and I don't think that was a difficult thing for Al-Ittihad. But currently the transfer market has officially closed so the possibility of selling foreign players is absolutely impossible for Al-Ittihad, so they just need to cross them out before they can sell them in the next transfer window.

[Strongkored]

haha, rigged so much and that why Ronaldo failed to get the title last year and lost to Benzema because rigged Yes, it's true that every time Ronaldo fails, then there is cheating. If the opposite then that's what should happen 

If someone else had won the award, then no one would be complaining. But Benzema? I don't think that his performance was satisfactory enough to win this award. In the end, the voting was done between Sadio Mane and Karim Benzema, and the latter won by a margin of 356 votes. Mane received less than 200 votes, while Benzema received a total of 549. BTW, Ronaldo was not even in the list of 25 players considered for this award. Apart from Benzema and Mane, others in top-5 were: Kevin de Bruyne, Robert Lewandowski and Mohamed Salah.

It is quite understandable why Benzema won that title that year because the selection system through voting will always involve feelings of likes and dislikes, so the assessment will not be 100% valid based on the achievements obtained by the players in that season.
Only the Golden Boot Award is valid because it is based on the number of goals scored by the player and it will not be able to cause controversy unless the league is involved in a fixed match, while the Golden Glove Award alone can also cause controversy because a goalkeeper who has better statistics can fail got it because the one who got it was from the winning team.

I don't agree if you say they ignore local players in fact local players can compete with other European players we can see it in the current top scorer list at least 2 local players are on the list Feras Albrikan and Salem Al-Dawsari besides that we can also see Al-Taawoun which is dominated by local players out of 29 players 21 of them are local players and they are currently in 2nd place in the standings. I think this is enough to prove that local players can compete and be relied on and their abilities increase if they continue to play with European players.

Al Taawon club illustrates that clubs dominated by local players can still compete, because of course many predict that competition in this league will only be between 4-5 clubs, four clubs that are under the ownership of the Public Investment Fund and the other one is Al Ettifaq, Al Taawon last season ended in fifth place so they can be said to be a quite competitive team.

[Maslate]

Saudi clubs are not relenting in the transfer window, making european players their priorities signings. SPL clubs keeps signing European players and forgetting about there own domestic players that have been in existence from the very first day the SPL was launched. Luiz Felipe is the trending new player for Al Ittihad, they probably move a little bit higher and impressive SPL games this season, which is actually a good news. Just given them enough time to adapt to the new system they have found themselves, things will definitely fall back normal as if it was European football. 

I don't agree if you say they ignore local players in fact local players can compete with other European players we can see it in the current top scorer list at least 2 local players are on the list Feras Albrikan and Salem Al-Dawsari besides that we can also see Al-Taawoun which is dominated by local players out of 29 players 21 of them are local players and they are currently in 2nd place in the standings. I think this is enough to prove that local players can compete and be relied on and their abilities increase if they continue to play with European players.

We cannot really say that they are ignoring their own because of what they are doing now which may seem that they are forgetting their own, in-fact, local players still makes up most of the SPL clubs. They are just acquiring European players to make their team more strong and that kind of move is not that new to us anymore because other sports industries are also doing that, not just for power but for fame and advertising as well since SPL needs more exposure to make the league bigger. This is a part of their bigger picture, sooner or later, it will happen.

[Nheer]

I don't agree if you say they ignore local players in fact local players can compete with other European players we can see it in the current top scorer list at least 2 local players are on the list Feras Albrikan and Salem Al-Dawsari besides that we can also see Al-Taawoun which is dominated by local players out of 29 players 21 of them are local players and they are currently in 2nd place in the standings. I think this is enough to prove that local players can compete and be relied on and their abilities increase if they continue to play with European players.

People usually underrate the abilities of the local players alot probably because the league is investing so much money to sign foreign players but I don’t see them that way, compared to other top league the saudi league is not up the standards yet but that doesn’t mean there are no good players in the league. They are investing in foreign players because they want to raise the standards of the league and gradually they are raising it’s standards. I do watch some matches in the league and i was seen some decent local players, i was surprised at first but then i realized maybe it’s because the league was not given attention that’s why we don’t notice them. What surprised me most was a player i saw dribbling showing off skills like we see in European football that was the day I realized they got talent too.

[Jody.Drummer]

The latest news from what I've heard is that he's going to La Liga and will rejoin Sevilla. Thus he has found a new club and will not go to the Arab League following the players who have already moved there.

Ramos never had an intention of playing in SPL. He wants back to play on his country again before the retirement of him in the football. He has been also getting paid with very low wages which was around 12 times less than what he would be received if he accept saudi club's offer. I think that he is only following his heart to play in sevilla rather than SPL club.
I thought that he would be following his friends (benzema and ronaldo) to play in SPL. he might have different regarding his movement.

Every player has their own steps to determine where they will play, and in other words Ramos does not intend to continue his career there for various reasons. and now he is back in La Liga to help Sevilla rise from its current slump.
Not only Ramos is the only player who does not intend to go to the SPL, his teammate at Real Madrid, Kroos also said the same thing, even he said something more than that and could be a debate between players who go to the SPL and do not intend to go there.

Sevilla will need his experience as a defender and that is indeed what they currently need, because they are also in a state of slump in La Liga that has never won. Maybe when Ramos joins it will help them, especially in defense. His experience is unquestionable, and his ability is still quite good.

That's true, but ramos were old enough. He cannot perform like what he used to be. His age definitely affects his performance in sevilla. Sevilla was also recruiting him caused by the club is on crisis.
Sevilla can't afford to recrit expensive players from another club due to the financial problem. I just respect him for following his heart.
[/quote]
When it comes to age, it's obvious that he's older and his movements won't be the same as when he was younger. But what I'm emphasizing here is his experience, maybe in terms of movement he's not as aggressive as he used to be, but his experience can be used to motivate other players or even in terms of mentality he can lift the mentality of the young players. One of the things that can't be forgotten in football is mentality, however mentality is something that will be very helpful for the process of improving the team's game, and mentally I see him very good.

[BitcoinHunt3r]

We cannot really say that they are ignoring their own because of what they are doing now which may seem that they are forgetting their own, in-fact, local players still makes up most of the SPL clubs. They are just acquiring European players to make their team more strong and that kind of move is not that new to us anymore because other sports industries are also doing that, not just for power but for fame and advertising as well since SPL needs more exposure to make the league bigger. This is a part of their bigger picture, sooner or later, it will happen.

Well that's what I said, local players still have a place there still able to compete with all players including European players so there's no reason local players are ignored. I understand what they are worried about maybe they talk about the future if European players continue to be brought in every season then the local player will be ignored but they forget that there must be a positive impact the abilities of local players also increase if they continue to play with European players at least this is what we see in Europe's top leagues always having an impact on the performance of national players.

[Polkeins]

Saudi clubs are not relenting in the transfer window, making european players their priorities signings. SPL clubs keeps signing European players and forgetting about there own domestic players that have been in existence from the very first day the SPL was launched. Luiz Felipe is the trending new player for Al Ittihad, they probably move a little bit higher and impressive SPL games this season, which is actually a good news. Just given them enough time to adapt to the new system they have found themselves, things will definitely fall back normal as if it was European football. 

I don't agree if you say they ignore local players in fact local players can compete with other European players we can see it in the current top scorer list at least 2 local players are on the list Feras Albrikan and Salem Al-Dawsari besides that we can also see Al-Taawoun which is dominated by local players out of 29 players 21 of them are local players and they are currently in 2nd place in the standings. I think this is enough to prove that local players can compete and be relied on and their abilities increase if they continue to play with European players.

If local players could compete, Saudi clubs probably wouldn't be buying so many newcomers from Europe.

The Saudi Arabian national team did well at the World Cup, beating the world champions with Messi in the squad, but still they didn't make it out of the group, and when Saudi clubs play friendly matches against very average European clubs, they lose almost without a chance. So I think top players from Europe should help local players to adopt their skills and experience, also apparently European players bring a lot of new things in the training process and young Saudi players can see how the best players in the world train.

[rozak]

We cannot really say that they are ignoring their own because of what they are doing now which may seem that they are forgetting their own, in-fact, local players still makes up most of the SPL clubs. They are just acquiring European players to make their team more strong and that kind of move is not that new to us anymore because other sports industries are also doing that, not just for power but for fame and advertising as well since SPL needs more exposure to make the league bigger. This is a part of their bigger picture, sooner or later, it will happen.

Well that's what I said, local players still have a place there still able to compete with all players including European players so there's no reason local players are ignored. I understand what they are worried about maybe they talk about the future if European players continue to be brought in every season then the local player will be ignored but they forget that there must be a positive impact the abilities of local players also increase if they continue to play with European players at least this is what we see in Europe's top leagues always having an impact on the performance of national players.

perhaps the football federation in Saudi should consider the number of foreign players each club can have. so it is to continue to provide a place to compete for local players with European players. Of course, we know the positive impact related to the game of local players which can unconsciously increase because they often train and play with European players.
We also know their concerns, so the federation must protect everyone in order to continue to contribute well to the development of Saudi football.

[len01]

I don't agree if you say they ignore local players in fact local players can compete with other European players we can see it in the current top scorer list at least 2 local players are on the list Feras Albrikan and Salem Al-Dawsari besides that we can also see Al-Taawoun which is dominated by local players out of 29 players 21 of them are local players and they are currently in 2nd place in the standings. I think this is enough to prove that local players can compete and be relied on and their abilities increase if they continue to play with European players.

People usually underrate the abilities of the local players alot probably because the league is investing so much money to sign foreign players but I don’t see them that way, compared to other top league the saudi league is not up the standards yet but that doesn’t mean there are no good players in the league. They are investing in foreign players because they want to raise the standards of the league and gradually they are raising it’s standards. I do watch some matches in the league and i was seen some decent local players, i was surprised at first but then i realized maybe it’s because the league was not given attention that’s why we don’t notice them. What surprised me most was a player i saw dribbling showing off skills like we see in European football that was the day I realized they got talent too.

people who look too closely at a team performance just because european players are talented are very clearly wrong and I agree with what @BitcoinHunt3r said that here in the SPL there are still top teams that have experienced improvements in their performance which are currently dominated by local players who the number is greater than the foreign players they brought in for Al Taawon and this team has proven that local players can also provide performances equivalent to european players when competing in the SPL.

we should not look too much at or compare european players with local players because they have their own talent that cannot be compared but anyway, back to what I said at the beginning when people only see the big names of european players without judging how good the local players are. on several teams currently.

[BRINIRHA]

Source: https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1699766604693729570

Al-Ittihad seems to be cooking and they are landing yet another European player into their squad. He is Luis Felipe, who was brought in from Real Betis for a total fee of 25 million euros. Agreements, documents, and medical tests have been completed. As defending champions last season Al-Ittihad certainly want the best for their squad and considering Felipe Luis is a centre-back they would want his services to strengthen the defence. Luis Felipe's journey also seems to be very short with only one season with Real Betis after being successfully brought in last season from Lazio.

Luiz Felipe is the last player Al Ittihad going to buy in this summer.
They hired many superstar players and now Al Ittihad said they hired this player from Real Betis.
Felipe left Lazio and joined Real Betis last summer and now this Italian is going to play for Al Ittihad.

But the problem for Al Ittihad is about the number of their foreign players because they currently have nine foreign players and Al Ittihad should remove one player from the list.

 

You are right that in the Arab League each club is only allowed to have 8 foreign players in the club. So with the presence of Luis Felipe, of course there must be one player removed from the squad. But actually I don't really understand how the rules are implemented there. But I personally see that they actually need all the foreign players they have at the moment.

What I love about Al-ittihad is this. The club is also taking their defensive strength seriously. By bringing in Luis Felipe, Al-Ittihad's defense will be even stronger. I hope Al-Nassr also takes the same step as Al-Ittihad in strengthening their squad. Because currently AL-Nassr is very good at the front but not so good at the back.

[shinratensei_]

We cannot really say that they are ignoring their own because of what they are doing now which may seem that they are forgetting their own, in-fact, local players still makes up most of the SPL clubs. They are just acquiring European players to make their team more strong and that kind of move is not that new to us anymore because other sports industries are also doing that, not just for power but for fame and advertising as well since SPL needs more exposure to make the league bigger. This is a part of their bigger picture, sooner or later, it will happen.

Well that's what I said, local players still have a place there still able to compete with all players including European players so there's no reason local players are ignored. I understand what they are worried about maybe they talk about the future if European players continue to be brought in every season then the local player will be ignored but they forget that there must be a positive impact the abilities of local players also increase if they continue to play with European players at least this is what we see in Europe's top leagues always having an impact on the performance of national players.

Local players are still being used by only by poor club which have no money to buy the european players. Those top 4 clubs which have owned by saudi club will be actually kicking the local players once those clubs were getting great player from european club.
I think that we can take bono's case as an example. Al ahli had so many local goal keepers but the club prefers to use bono as the main goal keeper. Even some local players already sold to another club.
That proves that if the chance for local players to play in the top club of SPL is quite small at this moment with the come of european players.

[Plaguedeath]

Local players are still being used by only by poor club which have no money to buy the european players. Those top 4 clubs which have owned by saudi club will be actually kicking the local players once those clubs were getting great player from european club.
I think that we can take bono's case as an example. Al ahli had so many local goal keepers but the club prefers to use bono as the main goal keeper. Even some local players already sold to another club.
That proves that if the chance for local players to play in the top club of SPL is quite small at this moment with the come of european players.

Local players has no impact into their popularity or engagement, so there's no reason to keep the local players or even let them to play. Saudi Professional League will become Premier League v2.0 because they keep signing European players. Imagine if Saudi Arabia can buy out Premier League teams, people might watch Saudi Professional League than Premier League due to popular players.

[Docnaster]

When Ronaldo joined Saudi Leageu many people were saying he was getting crazy and Saudi Leageu wasn't a good place for a player like Ronaldo because he can play in much better teams than a team like Al Nasr.
After the game between Slovakia and Portugal, Ronaldo said there's a problem in any league and he started defending his choice to play in the Saudi League.

Ronaldo started defending his choice of going to Saudi Arabia early enough and he also promised the world of football that in 5 to 10 years time that football will be in Saudi just as it is in Europe.
It did not take as long as Ronaldo predicted and everything started to turn around. This is to tell you how powerful Ronaldo is. He is very powerful and has very many huge fanbase. This is a good sportsman and I applaud him and his dedication both in and out of pitch. Today, Saudi Arabia is making plans to involve in the European Champions League all credit goes to Ronaldo who brought them to the timeline of football.

[QueenVera]

Local players are still being used by only by poor club which have no money to buy the european players. Those top 4 clubs which have owned by saudi club will be actually kicking the local players once those clubs were getting great player from european club.
I think that we can take bono's case as an example. Al ahli had so many local goal keepers but the club prefers to use bono as the main goal keeper. Even some local players already sold to another club. 

Local players has no impact into their popularity or engagement, so there's no reason to keep the local players or even let them to play. Saudi Professional League will become Premier League v2.0 because they keep signing European players. Imagine if Saudi Arabia can buy out Premier League teams, people might watch Saudi Professional League than Premier League due to popular players.

That's the reason why they're buying those European players to help build their league and make it more popular as other top European league but it will take a gradual process and they're getting there gradually probably few years from now, we'll see alot of Interest in the league, but I think playing along a popular experienced player should be an advantage for the local players to set up their football career and develop from them, for instance training along side Cr7 or Mane would make a very good experience because they'll learn from them and develop into better players so it's a good thing for the local players as well even if they don't get much playing time, they'll be motivated and train hard to be as good as most of the European players, however it would take a very long time before the Saudi league gets better than the EPL even with their financial stability, moreover not every player would like to move over there.

[hahay]

When Ronaldo joined Saudi Leageu many people were saying he was getting crazy and Saudi Leageu wasn't a good place for a player like Ronaldo because he can play in much better teams than a team like Al Nasr.
After the game between Slovakia and Portugal, Ronaldo said there's a problem in any league and he started defending his choice to play in the Saudi League.

Ronaldo started defending his choice of going to Saudi Arabia early enough and he also promised the world of football that in 5 to 10 years time that football will be in Saudi just as it is in Europe.
It did not take as long as Ronaldo predicted and everything started to turn around. This is to tell you how powerful Ronaldo is. He is very powerful and has very many huge fanbase. This is a good sportsman and I applaud him and his dedication both in and out of pitch. Today, Saudi Arabia is making plans to involve in the European Champions League all credit goes to Ronaldo who brought them to the timeline of football.

Basically when Ronaldo chose to play in the Saudi Pro League, I think it was still the right decision. Because anyway, the situation and conditions that occurred at that time or when Ronaldo chose to leave Manchester United for Al Nassr, the situation was not good for Ronaldo to continue his career in Europe. Therefore, I think it is not right if you say Ronaldo is still eligible to play in any team in Europe, because the situation at that time was very unlikely for Ronaldo to continue playing in Europe.