Saudi Arabian football clubs spent a record $957 million on players in the summer transfer window, second only to England’s Premier League, according to a report by Deloitte.
The spending spree was led by the Saudi Pro League, which acquired 94 overseas players, including 37 from Europe’s top five leagues.
The most notable signings included Ronaldo, Neymar, Karim Benzema, Fabinho, Kante, Mane and many others.
Much of the business was done with English Premier League clubs, which received $698 million in transfer fees from Saudi teams.
The Pro League’s net spend, deducting money received from selling players, was $907 million according to the financial consultancy’s Sports Business Group.
This placed it behind the Premier League’s net spend of $1.39 billion, but ahead of the other big five leagues: France’s Ligue 1 ($148 million), Italy’s Serie A ($122 million), Spain’s La Liga ($116 million), and Germany’s Bundesliga ($32 million).
The Saudi Pro League’s high spending came despite a busy summer transfer window overall, with the big five leagues spending a combined $6.1 billion.
This was about a quarter higher than last summer’s spending of $4.85 billion.
The Pro League’s spending spree is part of a broader effort by the Saudi government to revamp the country’s football league.
The government has invested heavily in the league, including buying four teams and funding the construction of new stadiums.
The government’s goal is to make the Saudi Pro League one of the world’s top five domestic football competitions.
However, the Pro League’s spending spree has also been met with some criticism for spending too much money on players and that the league is not sustainable in the long term.
