Saudi Arabian soccer targets Son Heung-min (Tottenham) with astronomical oil money.
Saudi Arabian soccer club Al Ittihad have reportedly made a massive offer for Son Heung-min, worth 168 billion won in salary and 252 billion won in bonuses over four years. The offer is astronomical, far exceeding the highest salary in the Premier League.
“Tottenham striker Son Heung-min has been offered a transfer fee of 60 million euros ($84 billion) by Saudi Arabia’s Al Ittihad and a contract worth 30 million euros ($42 billion) a season for four years,” ESPN UK reported on Feb. 20.
Earlier, CBS Sports’ Ben Jacobs also reported on social media that “Son, who is contracted to Tottenham until 2025, could be headed to Saudi Arabia in the summer of 2024”.
A base salary of €30 million ($42 billion) would be a staggering 2.6 times the £9.98 million ($16.4 billion) Son currently earns.
Even by Premier League standards, the world’s top soccer league, it’s more than the current highest-paid player, Kevin De Bruyne (Man City).
De Bruyne reportedly earns £425,000 per week before taxes, which is around $700 million, and an annual salary of around $32.4 billion. He is the highest paid player in the Premier League.
Elling Holland (Man City), the top scorer in the 2022-23 season, and David de Gea (Manchester United) are the second and third on the list, 토토사이트 earning just over 300 million won ($400,000) per week.
However, Son Heung-min, who is in his 30s, was guaranteed a salary of about 42 billion won every season for four years, which is a total of about 168 billion won in four years. In addition, the transfer fee of 84 billion won is also a considerable amount of money considering Son’s current age, which means they are willing to pay it.
Al Ittihad’s spending spree doesn’t stop with the huge transfer fee and salary. According to ESPN, “The Saudis are optimistic about Son’s future with the club and have prepared a €60 million ($84.2 million) bonus for his transfer.”
It’s unclear how the bonus will be paid, but if you include a bonus worth 84.2 billion won on top of his 42 billion won annual salary, you get an astronomical price tag of 25.22 billion won over four years.
“Top Saudi clubs are interested in signing a number of Premier League stars this summer, with Son Heung-min one of the most talked-about names,” according to ESPN.
In fact, Saudi Arabian soccer heated up the transfer market this year with an offer for Lionel Messi that would have made him the most expensive player in soccer history. While the deal didn’t go through, Al-Hilal’s offer of 570 billion won ($570 million) for Messi’s salary alone was enough to set the market on fire. It was a “crazy offer” that was almost double the annual salary of Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nasr), the highest paid player in the world. The deal fell through when Messi opted for the American MLS, but the Saudis have been on a star hunt ever since.
Al Ittihad, which is said to have made a hefty offer for Son Heung-min, has also snapped up Real Madrid starlet and France international Karim Benzema. N’Golo Kante, who led Chelsea to the top of the Champions League and the league title, has also been linked with a move to Al Hithiad.
Tottenham, however, are not in favor of a move for Son Heung-min. “Spurs are not interested in selling Son, which has made it difficult for Al Ittihad to move forward with negotiations,” ESPN reported, noting that Son’s contract with Tottenham runs through 2025.
Saudi Arabia’s oil money offensive is set to continue unabated. Hwang and Portugal’s key midfielder, Ruben Neves, who played alongside Hwang at Wolverhampton until last season, recently agreed a deal to move to Al-Hilal. The move came as a shock to many as he is only 26 years old and in his prime.
Having missed out on Messi, Al Hilal are reportedly offering similarly huge deals to bring in superstars such as Barcelona legendary duo Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, as well as PSG’s Marco Verratti.
It will be interesting to see what Son and Tottenham decide to do with these offers, which are virtually unparalleled in terms of treatment and circumstances.