Spain had to make up its mind. Karim Benzema will leave La Liga and join his former friend Cristiano Ronaldo, who arrived this winter in Al-Nassr, in the Saudi El Dorado. A gargantuan two-year contract awaits him at club Al-Ittihad, recent national champions, as confirmed on Sunday by the Saudi state television channel Al-Ekhbariya. It would include a salary of 100 million euros net per year.
This departure still seemed unimaginable in mid-May, just after the dry elimination of Real Madrid in the semi-finals of “its” Champions League, by Manchester City. Admittedly, the former center-forward of the Blues, now 35, has not had the season of his life after a 2021-2022 exercise in weightlessness which allowed him to win the Ballon d’Or, his childhood dream. . But KB9 still posted 18 La Liga goals before the last day on Sunday (only Lewandowski did better) and Madrid president Florentino Perez had no desire to part with one of his favorite players, loyal to the club since 2009.
“Proposals that cannot be refused”
“Benzema has a financial arbitration to make, observes Luc Arrondel, research director at the CNRS and specialist in the economy of football. As they say, there are offers you can’t refuse. And that from the kingdom ruled with an iron fist by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is one of them.
Very attached to the White House, the fresh winner of the UNFP trophy for the best French player abroad is a legend in a legendary club, in the 14 Champions Leagues. Benzema has won five and has 25 trophies with Real. Only Marcelo does as well. We could reasonably think that KB9 would glean at least one more by the summer of 2024, and would sit alone on the Madrid Olympus. But Riyadh’s sirens were stronger than this desire for history or the famous “Golden Ball clause”, which included an automatic one-season extension after obtaining the trophy.
Breaking with Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo was no more resistant in January. According to the magazine Forbes, the 38-year-old Portuguese is the highest paid sportsman in the world in 2023, with 124 million euros in income, between contract and commercial partnerships. CR7 is ahead of his eternal rival Lionel Messi who could overtake him if he in turn gave in to the unbridled court of Saudi Arabia. La Pulga (36 years old on June 24) is already advertising the country’s tourist office, and its recent unauthorized return trip from Paris to Riyadh has also accelerated the end of a passionless union with PSG…
An unprecedented sum of 400 million euros per year is mentioned for the Argentine world champion (who could be accompanied by his old friends from Barça Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba). Still in the Golden Ball section, the name of Luka Modric (37) continues to circulate, even if the Croatian is supposed to extend to Real. Far from certain French nursing homes, the Saudi Pro League is gradually transforming into an ultra-luxurious retirement home for world stars at the end of the road, to the point of revolutionizing world football.
The United States, El Dorado of the 1970s
“What is new is the amount that can be paid to these players, it is Saudi Arabia’s expensive policy for sport and football in particular, as we have also seen with the acquisition of Newcastle [en octobre 2022], says Luc Arrondel. But it is not new that countries qualified as exotic buy great players at the end of their career. We can think of the United States in the 1970s with Pelé, Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Gerd Müller, only Ballons d’Or. In the 2010s, China had this policy with Carlos Tevez or Ezequiel Lavezzi, before disengaging. »
The former Parisian, as comfortable with a pint in hand as with a ball in hand, but light years away from the level of the planetary gratin, has nevertheless touched more than Messi and Ronaldo when he was hiding on the side of Hebei China Fortune. In 2017, according to Football Leaks revelations, the Argentinian was the highest paid footballer in the world with 50 million euros per year, more than twice as much as his compatriot or the Portuguese at the time.
But this is much less than the emoluments that Saudi Arabia now offers to the best thirtysomethings in the world. “It seems like a lot but in fact, it’s not much when you have the financial surface of these sovereign funds”, continues the economist, co-author with Richard Duhautois of the collection in three volumes soccer money published by Rue d’Ulm. The United States and China ended up turning off the tap, more or less quickly. But if Mohamed Ben Salmane wants it, the waltz of petrodollars will not end soon, as his oil wells are provided differently than our water tables.
“By attracting very popular players, especially on social networks, the country takes advantage of the image of football to achieve other objectives, which the United States was already doing in the 1970s, to promote their domestic championship and host the world Cup [qu’ils organiseront en 1994] remarks Luc Arrondel. While we are talking about the ball, we are not talking about anything else. Of a murdered journalist, for example… “Sport washing” is doing well, thank you for it.
And now the World Cup
“It is a question of revitalizing the economic system based on oil revenue, deciphered geopolitics researcher Raphaël Le Magoariec for 20 minutes in January, before a lucrative friendly match between a Saudi selection led by Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi’s PSG. Saudi Arabia wants to create a still untapped market, that of entertainment. Until now, it was his religious “soft power” which was most dynamic at the international level. The country is adopting a new language of international relations. »
The kingdom, which has already recovered, among other things, a Formula 1 Grand Prix, is struggling in this area with its neighbors, the United Arab Emirates (Manchester City) and especially Qatar (PSG), organizer of the last World Cup. . Riyadh is aiming for the 2030 World Cup, or even 2034, and has forged a partnership with the African Confederation (CAF) which can bring it many votes when choosing the host country.
Will the Saudis aim for younger?
However, if the Saudis are busy in the back room, they do not forget to shine the window, with Ronaldo and now Benzema, perhaps waiting for Messi. To the point of bringing, without forcing too much, the football business into a new era and of thwarting the plans of the best club in the world, by stealing from it a center forward still in good working order.
It remains to be seen that the country is ready to go even further, by targeting younger players also coveted by the biggest European teams. A Riyadh derby between Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr with Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland at the forefront of each team, we are not there yet. But, to end on a good old cliché, “everything goes very fast in football”. And even more so when you don’t need to count your money.