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Extended Clip - Saudi Pro League Transfer News: Gabri Veiga Signing Shows European Football Risks Being Overtaken (Ep. 353)
1.6k Plays2 years ago
After Al-Ahli hijack Celta Vigo wonderkid Gabri Veiga from Napoli, Nima Tavallaey and Carlo Garganese discuss and analyze the impact and importance this deal will have moving forward when young players decide whether or not to move to the Saudi Pro League.
This is a clip from the weekly Thursday episode of the Italian Football Podcast.
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Transcript
Saudi Arabia's Evolving Football Strategy
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Italian football podcast.
00:00:06
Speaker
Let's talk about Saudi Arabia, because I think this is a game changer for Saudi Arabia. This is a sign in that they're not just signing older players like Kat Sadio Mane, Karim Benzema, and Cristiano Ronaldo, you know, players that are in their 30s and are going for one big last payday. And they're not signing the B-level kind of players, players like Ruben Neves, or even to an extent, someone like Sergey Milinkovic-Savage, somebody that's not wanted by the big clubs anymore. They're now signing players that are
00:00:35
Speaker
you know, the best young talent. They're now telling the player that this player wasn't just wanted by Napoli, Gabriel Vega, he was wanted by a lot of the big Premier League teams as well. He's a huge talent, Gabriel Vega, huge, huge talent. And I just saw what Tony Cruz just left there.
00:00:53
Speaker
left a comment under the news that he's moving to there. I can't remember what he said, something like, ridiculous or something like that. So, you know, this is a game changer, I think, don't you think, for Saudi Arabia in terms of they are now signing the best talent now?
Big Signings and Investments
00:01:13
Speaker
Yeah, and they're about to sign, Al Nasser is about to sign Otavio from Porto for 16 million euros as well.
00:01:19
Speaker
Um, yeah, I mean, but this was, this was always going to happen. Uh, this isn't China and, and well, and we says, well, I've been saying consistently for, for a bit now that this is not the Chinese super league. Saudi Arabia is not China. They, they have a history of football. They have a history of, um, they have a history of, of football culture and, and now, and they've also, you know,
00:01:44
Speaker
They've it's again, I don't know what is it, 20 million people, 30 million people, how many people they live that live there. It's a big population. This isn't like Qatari either. You know, they have a lot. There is a there are football, the massive fanatic football fans in Saudi. And now they have money to spend because they want to grow their league. They want to the Saudi league to be the biggest league in Asia.
Cultural Comparisons and Ambitions
00:02:08
Speaker
And and they want to host a World Cup. And this is part of that.
00:02:11
Speaker
So I'm not surprised. I was just waiting for this. And let's remember, we did see, I mean, if you remember, what was his name? The Brazilian, who everyone wanted, but he ended up going to China for ridiculous amounts of money when he was just a young player. He wasn't past his best or anything like that. I can't remember for the life of me his name.
00:02:29
Speaker
No, I can't remember his name, but I remember this was a play who everyone wanted. He was from Brazil. He went directly from Brazil to China, paid a ridiculous amount of money and spent. I can't remember his name, but yeah, it'll come to me. But yeah,
Impact on Global Football and Future Speculations
00:02:51
Speaker
that was this is kind of that moment but the difference is of course that football has never really been that big in China they're still growing they're trying to find their identity football is massive in Saudi and I think and in the Middle East and and they you know I think this is um this is this is gonna this is not like China this is going to linger on and this is going to be this isn't this is the new reality and everyone just has to adapt
00:03:15
Speaker
to it. And they're not bound by, they're not part of UEFA, so they're not bound by UEFA's rules. And if the rumours are true that they want to join the Champions League, or one or two other player clubs could join the Champions League, I find that, you know, interesting. I don't know how feasible it is, but I wouldn't exclude it. But no, it's, this is the new reality. And I think we're going to see more and more of it.
00:03:42
Speaker
from this. I think the Premier League now is going to have to deal with Saudi Arabia the same way that other clubs and other leagues have had to deal with the Premier League for decades now. It's just a reality of it. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think this is huge. I actually think this could be the biggest one yet. I think this will send a message to other younger players who are maybe a little bit hesitant or do I want to go to Saudi Arabia? You know, is it good for my career? I'm only
00:04:12
Speaker
in my young 20s or, you know, I think this will send a message to those that if they can just get a couple more kind of Gabri Vega types, I think suddenly you'll then start getting players that are, you know, even teenagers, you know, 20, 20 year olds, 21, 22, 23, 24, not
00:04:31
Speaker
you know, late twenties in their thirties kind of plays. So I think it's, I think it's big. Alex Tixeira, that's what I was thinking about. Alex Tixeira was the player who joined young Xu Suning for 50 million after Shakhtar. That's the one, that's the one I was thinking about. He didn't make much, didn't make much of his career, did he?