“Saudi Arabia has changed football transfer market”: Pep Guardiola

Manchester United manager Pep Guardiola admitted on Saturday that Saudi Arabia has 'changed the football transfer market'

Manchester: Manchester United manager Pep Guardiola admitted on Saturday that Saudi Arabia has ‘changed the football transfer market’, following Riyad Mahrez’s 30 million pound move to Al-Ahli.

As per Goal.com, the Algerian winger left the Premier League to start a new chapter of his career with Al-Ahli, who offered him the aforementioned astronomical amount.

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Speaking during the club’s pre-season South Korea tour, Guardiola talked about whether the club will sign a replacement for Mahrez and how Saudi Arabia has changed the football transfer market by offering large sums to players.

“We are not looking for a replacement of Riyad in terms of skill because every player is different,” Guardiola said as quoted by Goal.com.

“Saudi Arabia has changed the market. A few months ago, when Cristiano [Ronaldo] was the only one to go, no one thought this many top, top players would play in the Saudi league.” “In the future, there will be more and that is why clubs need to be aware of what is happening. Riyad got an incredible offer [from Al-Ahli] and that’s why we could not say ‘do not do it’,” he concluded.

Following Ronaldo’s winter transfer to Al-Nassr this year, the ongoing summer window has seen many football superstars moving to Saudi. Some of them are Karim Benzema (Al-Ittihad), N’Golo Kante (Al-Ittihad), Sadio Mane (Al-Nassr), Ruben Neves (Al-Hilal), Edouard Mendy (Al-Ahli), Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Al-Hilal), all of who moved to the Middle-East after receiving massive deals.

The clubs from Saudi Arabia not only pay transfer fees beyond the market worth of some players (Neves was signed for‚¬55 million, Malcom was signed for‚¬60 million), but they also give exorbitant salaries (a prime example is Ronaldo earning £177 million year at Al-Nassr).

Following their 2-1 win over Bayern Munich this week, City will facing Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid on Sunday at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.