The price Saudi Arabia paid to bring players like Neymar and Benzema last summer

The Saudi Pro League surprised many football fans when they brought in world-class players from Europe. The first big signing they made last year was Cristiano Ronaldo, who signed in late December of 2022 and played in the league in early 2023. After Ronaldo's signing for Al Nassr, the Saudi Pro League spent big as players like Neymar Jr and Karim Benzema joined the league as well. Neymar signed for Al Hilal and Benzema joined Al Ittihad. Along with them, other players like Ruben Neves, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, and Aymeric Laporte joined the league, which was targeted by big clubs in Europe. Now the Saudi Pro League could face trouble for overspending last summer.

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Sports Business Journal reports that Saudi Arabia clubs won't plan to spend like last summer in order to "reduce losses and build a more sustainable domestic transfer market," according to Fahad Abuljadayel from Bloomberg News. FIFA reported that Saudi Arabia spent $875.4 million on bringing foreign players last summer. While the league thought that bringing these stars to the league would increase interest in Saudi Arabia, they thought wrong. The league seems to continue to struggle in bringing fans to their stadiums, and the average attendance for this season has been just over 8,000.

The attendance in stadiums has reduced to 10% from the previous season, and the league does not want any more losses. The Saudi Pro League still has some clubs interested in a couple of players from Europe, but now clubs are looking to sign free agents instead of bidding big for players like last summer. On the other hand, European clubs would prefer to get rid of players with high transfer fees.

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A Saudi Arabian team wants to sign FC Barcelona's Raphinha

Sport reported that a Saudi Arabian club offered $87 million for Raphinha from FC Barcelona. Barcelona is a club that is in need of these funds, which gives a few Saudi Arabian clubs an idea of potentially still signing a few players for a high price.