I should probably state from the outset that this is a rant, and it has to do with football.
When Saudi clubs began offering outrageous contracts to fading stars and, on occasion, equally outrageous contracts to rising stars, the world did what it always does best: argue.
You've got two teams, I feel like the analogy works best if we stick to the sports theme.
You've got team Saudi and team Who Cares About The Saudi League?
People on Team Saudi argue that yes, passion, yes, career, yes, records, yes, trophies BUT the Saudi League would triumph because... money.
Because if I'm doing a job for $3k a month and somebody offers me $30k or even $300k, I'll just drop everything and go.
Yes, except that's a faulty analogy. If I make $3000 a month and somebody 10Xs my salary, it's life-changing money.
How can that apply to footballers? They're already extremely rich. Benzema, Firmino, and the other guy I don't even wanna name. These are three of the players that went to Saudi (and regretted it, more on that later).
These guys have been on hundreds of thousands of dollars a WEEK for years.
They're worth eight figures at the very least.
They can already afford yachts, hypercars and private jets.
Sure, everybody's greedy, but the amount of money they got in Saudi isn't life-changing to them.
Also, there's two types of people. There's people with jobs and people with careers.
Football is about money, but it's also about a career. And career is built around prestige, how difficult it is to play that game or that league.
It's built around iconic last-minute winning goals scored at packed legendary stadiums.
And there are only two geographies where that happens, it doesn't matter how hard you wish it to be different, and that's Europe and South America.
The Champions League matters, the EPL matters, Spain's Clasico matters, what River Plate or Boca Juniors or Santos do matters.
In other words, for football to succeed you need fans. And you need fans from Europe, especially from some countries, and from South America, especially Brazil and Argentina.
Sure, young impressionable kids may fall for the hype for a second, but that's not your core audience.
Your core audience is the one that sticks with the team even when the game sucks. Even when their favourite team loses.
You can't buy that. Certainly not overnight.
No one in these countries gives a flying fcuk what happens in the Saudi League, in the same way they didn't care what was going on in the Chinese League.
Yeah, remember those days? They were trying to do what Saudi are doing. And how did that go?
Sure, some might say that Saudi is different. They have more money. And that's true. But we get back to core issue.
No one cares about the Saudi League.
Which brings us on to another issue. Benzema is one hell of a player. Firmino, too. But it's one thing when you receive the ball to Salah or Modric. It's different when you receive the ball from the average Saudi League player.
Honestly, is anyone surprised that TV companies are trying so hard to broadcast Saudi League games and no one is watching? The viewership numbers are risible.
Is anyone surprised that so many players want to leave?
And then we get to the biggest clown of them all.
Former Liverpool captain and England international.
You know his name.
He's the clown that wore a rainbow armband because that was the PC, woke thing to do.
And then nonchalantly toned it down and said he has to respect the "culture of the country he plays in now".
Right. A country where, friendly reminder, being gay is illegal.
Not judging or expressing an opinion, I don't care about politics, but that's a statement of fact.
Very few things on Earth infuriate me more than hypocrisy.
Which is why, out of all this, I praise Odion Ighalo.
He stands out because while all the other clowns talked about 'project' and 'quality of football' and 'passion'.
He was the only one who had the courage and honesty to say, "guys, we're all here because we're overpaid".
Nothing wrong with that. But don't pretend it is otherwise.
