For Saudi Arabia, rush of star football signings could be its most effective tool

Another day, another high-profile Champions League footballer being offered huge money to move to Saudi Arabia. Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzama have signed up, N’Golo Kanté is close to joining the party and Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are among others being courted. It all forms part of a plan to use the sport to sanitise the country’s reputation.

If Tuesday’s effective Saudi takeover of men’s golf was the kingdom’s most striking move yet, its football project is also making considerable waves. The Saudi football authorities are working to a blueprint that started long before the various Ballon d’Or winners were on the transfer radar, funded by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which owns 80% of Newcastle United, on Monday acquired 75% stakes in four Saudi clubs and is behind the golf manoeuvres. They have brought in experts to devise how to best make an impact, having also targeted boxing and Formula One as tools for reputational gain.

Among the PIF’s quartet, Al-Nassr have Ronaldo, Al-Ittihad have signed Benzema and look poised to land Kanté, Al-Hilal are pursuing Messi and Aubameyang, and Al-Shabab, too, are after Aubameyang. Kanté has been offered about €100m a year, Benzema and Ronaldo are being paid about twice that, and the money on offer to Messi dwarfs even those figures. Messi is a tourism ambassador for Saudi Arabia.

There is a long-held ambition in Saudi to host the World Cup, with a potential bid for 2030 being worked on. Reports have claimed talks were held with Egypt and Greece over a joint bid. The country’s leader, Mohammed bin Salman, can see the political gain in hosting the event after being marginalised by other nations for Saudi Arabia’s actions,