{"id":152,"date":"2023-06-19T21:54:23","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T20:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afrikmag.com\/english\/?p=152"},"modified":"2023-06-19T21:54:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T20:54:37","slug":"saudi-arabia-aims-to-poach-six-chelsea-stars-threatens-to-disrupt-manchester-city-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.afrikmag.com\/english\/saudi-arabia-aims-to-poach-six-chelsea-stars-threatens-to-disrupt-manchester-city-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia Aims to Poach Six Chelsea Stars, Threatens to Disrupt Manchester City Too"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There seems to be no football superstar that Saudi Arabia doesn&#8217;t envision playing for its teams. Cristiano Ronaldo was one of the first big names to make a move to the country, with others such as his former Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema following suit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Undeniably, the lure of significant financial rewards has attracted these players to Saudi Arabian clubs, and an increasing number of renowned names are being associated with this trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Sun reports that Saudi Arabia is now looking to secure the services of as many as six Chelsea players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Todd Boehly, the owner of Chelsea, is reportedly prepared to part ways with a select group of players in an attempt to comply with Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Players potentially leaving Chelsea for Saudi Arabian clubs include Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Kalidou Koulibaly, Romelu Lukaku, Hakim Ziyech, Edouard Mendy, and N&#8217;Golo Kante.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notably, journalist Fabrizio Romano has confirmed Kante&#8217;s imminent move to Al Ittihad and Mendy&#8217;s transfer to Al Ahli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chelsea&#8217;s Strategy to Comply with FFP<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The club&#8217;s strategy centers around adhering to the constraints of financial fair play, or more precisely, finding a way to respect the guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A question commonly asked these days is how Chelsea can generate such considerable revenue without breaching FFP regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;What Chelsea has decided to do is spread the cost of players by signing them to very lengthy contracts,&#8221; financial expert Kieran Maguire explained to Sky Sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new financial fair play rule caps team costs (which encompass transfer fees, wages, bonuses, and agent commissions) at a maximum of 70% by the 2025\/26 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, by distributing these costs across multiple seasons, the club can enjoy greater flexibility and room for maneuver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Saudi Arabia&#8217;s Interest Extends to Man. City<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to The Athletic, Bernardo Silva of Manchester City was also seriously contemplating a move to the Saudi league. He reportedly has a staggering offer on the table, but his desire to continue playing for a top team in Europe is competing with this enticing financial proposition. His agent, Mendes, is said to be already negotiating various alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"711\" src=\"https:\/\/www.afrikmag.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/saudi_MC-1024x711.jpeg\" alt=\"saudi_MC\" class=\"wp-image-154\"\/><\/figure>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There seems to be no football superstar that Saudi Arabia doesn&#8217;t envision playing for its teams. Cristiano Ronaldo was one of the first big names to make a move to the country, with others such as his former Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema following suit. Undeniably, the lure of significant financial rewards has attracted these &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,73,130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-la-une","category-football","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.3 (Yoast SEO v21.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Saudi Arabia Aims to Poach Six Chelsea Stars, Threatens to Disrupt Manchester City Too - Afrikmag<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.afrikmag.com\/english\/saudi-arabia-aims-to-poach-six-chelsea-stars-threatens-to-disrupt-manchester-city-too\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saudi Arabia Aims to Poach Six Chelsea Stars, Threatens to Disrupt Manchester City Too\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There seems to be no football superstar that Saudi Arabia doesn&#8217;t envision playing for its teams. Cristiano Ronaldo was one of the first big names to make a move to the country, with others such as his former Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema following suit. 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