Saudi Arabian football champion Al-Ittihad has another high-profile French player to accompany Karim Benzema at the team next season. (More Football news)
N’Golo Kante completed his move from Chelsea on Wednesday, with Al-Ittihad welcoming the 32-year-old midfielder with a series of tweets containing the hashtag “WelcomeBox2Box” — referrin🌠g to his hard-running style of play.
He will reportedly earn more than $100 million across the length of a four-year deal at a club based in Jeddah and coached by former Tottenham an𝄹d Wolverhampton manager Nuno Espirito Santo. It recently won the Saudi league ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr.
Kante, who won the World Cup with Fra🐼nce in 2018, the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021 and has been one of the best players in the Premier League in recent years as a back-to-back champion with Leicester and Chelsea, has struggled with injuries over the past two seasons.
🅷That hasn’t put off Al-Ittihad from apparently spending big on Kante, a few weeks after bringing in Benzema after the expiry of the reigning world player of the year’s contract at Real Madrid. There was not immediately a statement on Al-Ittihad’s website regarding Kante’s signing.
The big names — albeit players nearing the end of t✱heir careers — are being enticed to the Saudi league, where spending is being fueled by a move by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth Public Investment Fund to take a majority ownership stake in four of the country’s top clubs, including Al-Ittihad and Al-Nassr. The move is part of a “privatization project” that enc𒐪ourages public sector organizations to invest in sports, with soccer teams a priority under the initiative backed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Another of those four teams, A𝓀l-Hilal, tried to buy Lionel Messi but Argentina’s World Cup winne🔜r decided to join Inter Miami in the United States.
A slew of leading players are being linked with moves to Saudi Arabia in this European offseason, including Manchester City winger Riyad 🐎Mahrez, Che♒lsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy and Wolverhampton midfielder Ruben Neves.
