Saudi Pro League chief reveals four marquee transfer targets
Saudi Pro League director of football Michael Emenalo admits there's interest in taking Lionel Messi, Kevin De Bruyne, Kylian Mbappe and Mohamed Salah to the Middle East.
The former Chelsea and AS Monaco technical director, who spoke to Talking Transfers x Inside Recruitment series in October, took up his role in July, at a time when four PIF-backed clubs — Al Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ahli and Al Ittihad — launched an all-out offensive to sign the world's best players.
Karim Benzema, Neymar, Sadio Mane, N'Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez were five of a number of high-profile players to take up the offer of playing in Saudi Arabia, each earning mammoth contracts that place them among the top earners in world football.
Saudi's summer spending is set to continue in January and next summer, with Mohamed Salah and Casemiro among the top targets, and Emenalo has confirmed in a detailed interview with some of the players the Pro League is interested in prising away from Europe and the US.
«Mo Salah, like [Lionel] Messi, [Karim] Benzema, [Cristiano] Ronaldo and the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, these are players that when there is a sense of availability for them, we are willing to listen,» he said.
«But we also understand that Mo is happy where he is at present and in a historic, wonderful club at Liverpool. We respect that very much and we don't want to come across as putting any pressure on him.
»But if there is any interest to do something, Mo Salah is a player that you want in your league, in any league."
He added on Liverpool's desire to keep Salah: «We respect Liverpool and in this scenario, the initiative to do anything won't come from us. There has to be an aligned interest from all parties involved.
»It's a very personal thing, as a player
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