Saudi Pro League Targeting Massimiliano Allegri, Julen Lopetegui And Marco Silva
The Saudi Pro League doesn’t just have big name players on its radar, with managers from the Premier League and Serie A now of interest to the growing competition.
Investment in Saudi Arabia’s top flight has gone through the roof in recent months. It started with Cristiano Ronaldo joining Al-Nassr at the start of January but has picked up considerably since the end of the 2022/23 season.
Karim Benzema joined newly crowned Al-Ittihad from Real Madrid, followed by N’Golo Kante from Chelsea. Ruben Neves, 26, then bucked the trend of ageing players heading for a pre-retirement pay day when he completed a transfer from Wolves to Al-Hilal, the club that had targeted Lionel Messi.
Now, Bernardo Silva has been offered a huge deal to leave Manchester City, Edouard Mendy and Hakim Ziyech are in the process of swapping Chelsea for Saudi Arabia, with additional interest in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and public warnings to Liverpool about Mohamed Salah.
Money also looks set to continue to be pumped into the Saudi Pro League apace after the country’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the same group that is majority shareholder at Newcastle, took controlling stakes of the four biggest clubs – Al Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ahli and Al Ittihad.
But it doesn’t stop at players. 90min understands that Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri is weighing up an offer to take charge of either Al Nassr or Al Hilal.
Similarly, an offer has been put to Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui, who was only appointed by the Premier League side in November but has faced uncertainty around his future at Molineux over the club’s stretched financial situation and related spending limitations. It is far from certain that he would turn down the chance to go and work in Saudi Arabia instead.
Fulham’s Marco Silva is another with contact from the Saudi Pro League. The Portuguese is entering the final year of his deal at Craven Cottage and has not reached an agreement over an extension.
Both Lepetegui and Silva have been spoken to in connection with the Al Hilal job, as it stands.
