It started with Karim Benzema and it keeps rolling strong! Really strong! It has long been known that the French striker will not be the only star to arrive in the Middle East this summer, but few expected that the Arabs would embark on such an extensive campaign so soon.Hence, we have a new ‘transfer bomb’ this afternoon. It may not resonate as strongly as when it became clear that the current Ballon d’Or winner will play in Saudi Arabia, but it tells us very clearly that the mission to establish the league there as one of the most attractive in the world is in full swing. The English media reports: Ruben Neves (26) will officially become the new player of Al Hilal, the biggest and most popular Saudi club, next week.The Portuguese midfielder was linked to Barcelona for a long time, but due to the big problems the Catalans have with their finances, the two clubs failed to come to an agreement. Meanwhile, a fabulous offer arrived from the east. For a player whose contract expires in 12 months, Al Hilal offered – brace yourselves – 55,000,000 euros?!##NAJAVA_MECA_7324640##Probably shocked by what they saw, the leaders of Wolverhampton themselves informed the player, and when he found out about the details of his personal conditions, he obviously easily forgot about Barcelona and all other European options. The deal was contracted quite quickly, confirmed immediately by all relevant sports media, so we can state that the first Premier League star “fell” to Saudi millions.No information has yet emerged as to how much Neves will earn per year, however there is no doubt that it is an obscenely large number, considering the age of the lad and the offers he has had.Maybe Ruben Neves lacks ambition, but after this move, he will have enough money to secure a few family generations to come…Al Hilal, known as the ‘Saudi Real Madrid’, did not succeed with their first two picks and now it seems that they are determined to work quickly and overpay. They do not want more ‘failures’ to happen at the negotiating table.Maybe they didn’t manage ‘break’ Lionel Messi (rejected 1.2 billion for two years), then neither did Luka Modrić (rejected 600 million in three years), so they turned to some ‘smaller’ beasts that could profit dangerously well due to the new situation.BREAKING! Wolves have agreed a £47m fee with Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal to sell midfielder Ruben Neves.— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) June 18, 2023 In short, Al Hilal eyed Marco Verratti and sent him an official offer (we are waiting for the numbers), Kalidou Koulibaly and Ivan Perišić are also targets. We are talking, of course, only about names that have been leaked to the public and about jobs that are still far from being realized.In the narrowest circle of candidates for the coach are Sergio Conceição and former Brazilian coach Tite, while in the last 24 hours significant progress has been made in convincing Ilkay Gundogan to go to Riyadh. The German even said himself that there are only two options for him:”Either I stay with Pep Guardiola, or I go to Al Hilal”…Now, it’s just one club. During the weekend, the others also went wild. For example, Al Nassr, for which Cristiano Ronaldo plays, reportedly agreed to the arrival of William Carvalho (31) from Betis. There is no mention of compensation. The salary for three years should be 30,000,000.A far bigger operation will be the purchase of Hakim Ziyech. And it is on the way…Let us remind you that Al Ittihad, in whose jersey we will be watching Benzema, has clarified everything with N’Golo Kante. The experienced midfielder whose contract with Chelsea has expired will receive around 200,000,000 euros in two years. He successfully passed the medical examinations during the day and we can already expect the first photos in the yellow-black jersey from tomorrow.##EDITORS_CHOICE##The fourth Saudi giant – Al Ahly, ‘threw a hook’ to Sergio Ramos. They also initiated concrete negotiations with goalkeeper Edouard Mendy from Chelsea.Al Ittifaq is far from the reputation of the aforementioned clubs, but it has the desire (and obviously the means) to sign a big name. From their address, offers went to Ivan Rakitić, Philippe Coutinho and coach Steven Gerrard.Among all those names, two more said no to Saudi abundance – Riyad Mahrez and Antoine Griezmann.It is now clear to everyone, the epicenter of the new football revolution is – the Middle East!
