Gabri Veiga to Saudi

Nano said:
There gets a point where you have enough money though surely. An average PL player will be on £50k per week. After a career they will be a multi millionaire. Once you are at the point where the money is enough to give you the lifestyle you want then surely your goals shift to achieving something rather than just making a number in your bank account go up. If you already have more money than you can spend then getting more of it doesn't change anything.

Cricket is completely different because county cricket pays nothing and cricket in general isn't worth a huge amount so they have to chase the IPL money to get a good salary out of cricket.
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Average PL players seldom win trophies which proves my point, playing for a middle of the road prem team what are the odds you ever actually win anything?

Man city have monopolized the league to a large extent, and most of their players are on saudi money anyway, the other teams are just fighting for the odd league cup or whatever

Hardly a legacy is it, a 15 year career and 5 million in the bank with a coca cup cup medal, or a 15 year career with 25 million in the bank and no medal

Half the time the players end up selling their medals anyway, to get more money, it fades away like everything else after a few years and we want new challenges
 
If I had the talent of a 20 year old Wayne Rooney, I’d feel like I’d wasted it if I spent 10 years at Al-Ettifaq earning boatloads of money.

What about the chance to play at Anfield, Old Trafford, win the things you grew up dreaming about. Big European nights. Playing for your country and going to a World Cup is a massive one. I can see why a lot of footballers treat club football as a job but I reckon a majority absolutely love international football, especially if you’re from a country with a chance of winning one. No one’s going to make an Amazon Prime documentary about the guy who signed the biggest contract in the Saudi Pro League, but win the Champions League and you’re part of history.

You can still get the big payday at the end of your career. But playing uncompetitive football in a noddy league in your early 20s will kill your development and probably your international career too. People are motivated by different things but these guys became elite because they’re stone cold winners, and that’s what gets them out of bed. Maybe I’m just a romantic.

I take your point that the average player won’t get chance to win this stuff. But the Saudis aren’t targeting Aaron Cresswell, they’re after the elite.
 
jonny_greenings_sock said:
If I had the talent of a 20 year old Wayne Rooney, I’d feel like I’d wasted it if I spent 10 years at Al-Ettifaq earning boatloads of money.

What about the chance to play at Anfield, Old Trafford, win the things you grew up dreaming about. Big European nights. Playing for your country and going to a World Cup is a massive one. I can see why a lot of footballers treat club football as a job but I reckon a majority absolutely love international football, especially if you’re from a country with a chance of winning one. No one’s going to make an Amazon Prime documentary about the guy who signed the biggest contract in the Saudi Pro League, but win the Champions League and you’re part of history.

You can still get the big payday at the end of your career. But playing uncompetitive football in a noddy league in your early 20s will kill your development and probably your international career too. People are motivated by different things but these guys became elite because they’re stone cold winners, and that’s what gets them out of bed. Maybe I’m just a romantic.

I take your point that the average player won’t get chance to win this stuff. But the Saudis aren’t targeting Aaron Cresswell, they’re after the elite.
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So an example of the young and elite who has gone to a saudii club is?
 
I know it sounds silly but as well as money, players play for the memories and experiences. I doubt they dreamed of playing in Saudi, as opposed to most of the grounds in England and Europe. Obviously, money is a massive and only factor in going to play in Saudi. All individual personal decisions, as with everyone in life.
 
What I also don't understand with the Saudi league is why PIF are only funding 4 or 5 clubs. This will make the gap to the rest even wider. Just saw Ronaldo got a hattrick. He's gonna get a lot more goals now with better teammates and weaker opposition. Imagine something like that happening in Europe. I know there's vast disparities between different teams, but not directly controlled by the state.
 
4 or 5 clubs able to challenge for a league title is tremendously diverse compared to Europe. Most have one or two who are capable of challenging for the title. It's become a lot worse since champions league money has been distorting the picture. But you look at country's like Spain or Portugal and throughout the history of the league you can count the winners on one hand.
 
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