Can you imagine a LaLiga matchday in which Lamine, Mbappé or Julián Álvarez refused to play? Complicated, if not impossible. Something very similar has happened in the Saudi league. First it was Benzema and then Cristiano Ronaldo those who they have said no to playing with their respective teams in situations that are being experienced in a championship that has suffered an earthquake in the last week, with the two great references away from the green of their own volition, refusing to play. At least, Benzema is now a new Al Hilal player, leaving his time at Al Ittihad behind.
The two ex-Madridistas have hit the table, one betting for the strength of Al Hilal (Benzema) and the other (CR7) raising his voice at what he considers abuse of power by the PIF favoring to a team, which is none other than Prince Al Waleed’s Al Hilalone of the greatest fortunes in the world and who helps the Riyadh team with his money to make his team stronger.
A question of money or display of power, the truth is that the two big stars of the emerging Arab championship have given a step forward faced with a situation that they believe goes beyond the strictly sporting, such as the political interference‘ when it comes to distributing money and signings between the clubs that are largely financed by the PIF, Saudi sovereign fund, who seems determined to forcing football to be private property.
Both, each in their own way and style, have felt attacked by sovereign decisions and have made use of what is being able to choose destination o at least try it. Even in the case of portugueseuntil the Al Nassr leaders are the ones who have raised the complaint for the favorable treatment received by Al Hilal. CR7 expected much more from his club and he did not like that the eternal rival was reinforced with Benzema. Neither to the Portuguese nor to the leaders of Iñigo Martínez’s team. So much so that it has come to aim what is he own club the one who is after the striker’s protest.
The first conflict arises from the hand of the lack of desire of the “decision maker in football”, as they call it in Saudi Arabia, to offer Karim Benzema of one new contract in line with what the Frenchman does and represents in the current league and cup champion and which has been considered an insult by the player himself.
Benzema looked for one solution with El Attihad and has found it in Al Hilal, something that may seem unheard of in any Western country, but has been possible in Saudi Arabia. A year and a half of contract ahead is what the forward has.
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The solution is more complicated CR7 casesince it looks like a pulse to the systemthe one who supervises everything and whose favorable treatment has made some clubs say enough is enough.
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