Zlatan Ibrahimovic has tweeted insults at players who moved to the Saudi Pro League last summer, asking them why they did so.
With Neymar, Sadio Mané, and N’Golo Kanté joining on huge contracts in the past few months, Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Al Nassr in January set off a chain reaction of big-name players joining the league.
Although Ibrahimovic said he had offers from Saudi Arabia and China when his career was over (the Swedish great stopped in June), he turned them down because he wanted to leave a lasting impact.
The Chinese also made me a deal. “Saudi Arabia also made me an offer, but whatever you want is what you get,” Ibrahimovic told Piers Morgan on the Uncensored show. “What objectives do you have?”As I said before we started, some players need to end their careers on the big stage, where they belong.
“Put your ability first, not what you made. Because if you were remembered for the wrong things, what we train for every day and what gets us noticed is our talent, and that’s what you want to be remembered for. “So I think some players have to stop at a certain level, and that’s the big stage.”
Meanwhile, Zlatan said he could see why players who had less successful lives financially would be excited about moving to the Saudi Pro League.
“Some players needed the situations where you can earn a lot of money because they didn’t earn enough.”
In the summer transfer window, teams in the Saudi Pro League spent almost $1 billion on players. This was made easier by the fact that the country’s Public Investment Fund now owns four of the teams and also pays for the separate LIV Golf series.
