Saudi Arabia will not always be able to live on oil and fresh water. Since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman came to power in 2017, the country has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in many areas in anticipation of the decline of black gold. Financed by the Public Sovereign Investment Fund (PIF) and by the oil operator Aramco, the recovery of Western players caused a slaughter in the world of football as we knew it.
After Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kanté or Ronaldo, Neymar would have negotiated an annual salary of 100 million euros to join Al Hilal, according to a source close to the agreement to AFP. “We finally see Saudi Arabia as a new player capable of competing with the vast majority of European championships. It even worries England and its powerful first Ligue 1, the first world championship, ”says Jean-Baptiste Guégan, expert in the geopolitics of sport.
The goal is clear: “Sport is the best way to work on what we call the power of the imagination, to literally change (…) the way we tell ourselves and how we want to be told,” explains the specialist. Accused of doing “Sport Washing”, the wealthy Gulf monarchy therefore continues to target many world competitions, such as the Asian Winter Games of 2029, awarded to Saudi Arabia by the Olympic Council of Asia. on October 4th.
But if the conquest of the sporting world is a stated ambition of the country, a question remains however: can Saudi Arabia really impose itself on the international scene on a lasting basis?
A video to be found at the top of the article.