RIYADH — Football fans in Saudi Arabia and many countries around the world are awaiting the historical launch of the strongest ever version of the Saudi Professional League (SPL) which kick-starts on Friday, Aug. 11. The 49th edition of the league, or the second season of Roshn Saudi League, features the gathering of a galaxy of international football heavyweights, most notably Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. The beginning of the new season 2023-2024 sees the flocking of a large number of international soccer stars as part of an ambitious Saudi bid to covert the league into one of the top 10 best leagues in the world, in realizing the dream of Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman. As part of the plan, the Crown Prince announced last month the privatization of major Saudi football clubs with pumping huge investments. Saudi Arabia announced on June 5 transforming four big Saudi Pro League clubs, Al-Hilal, Al Ittihad, Al-Nassr, and Al-Ahli into companies owned by Public Investment Fund (PIF) and creating non-profit foundations for each club. This comes as part of the Kingdom's Sports Clubs Investment and Privatization Project. There are 18 clubs in the new season of SPL after an addition of two more clubs than the previous season. This means that there is an increase in the number of matches, fun and excitement during the coming season. The Jeddah-based Al-Ittihad, the defending champions, is well geared up to retain the title after signing with some of the great international stars. Most prominent among them is the French international star Karim Benzema, the Real Madrid striker, who won the Ballon d'Or best player award in 2022. Other leading stars who signed with the team for the new season include French midfielder N'Golo Kante, the Portuguese Jota, and the Brazilian Fabinho, who came from Liverpool. As Roshn Pro League champions, Al-Ittihad will have a historic opportunity to represent the country in the FIFA Club World Cup, to be held in Riyadh in December this year. Al-Nassr, the runner-up of the last season, is poised to lift the title by bolstering its squad with signing with one of the greatest players in the world football -Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese superstar joined Al-Nassr in the mid of the last season in January this year. The Riyadh-based club has completed its contract with Croatian Marcelo Brozovic and Senegalese Sadio Mane, former Liverpool player from Bayern Munich, in addition to Seko Fofana and Brazilian Alex Telles. As for Al-Hilal, who was absent from the podium during the last season after retain the SPL title for three times in a row. Al-Hilal signed contract with the Serbian Sergej Milinković-Savić, captain of Italian Lazio, and the Portuguese national player Ruben Neves, who came from the ranks of Wolverhampton Wanderers or Wolves of England and the Brazilian Malcolm, who was previous player of Barcelona, and Senegalese Kalidou Koulibaly from Chelsea. Al-Ahly of Jeddah, which was relegated to the first division earlier, returned to SPL competitions by giving an early warning to its opponents through clinching high profile deals with some super stars. They include the Algerian international Riyad Mahrez, who came from the English Manchester City, and next to him is the Liverpool star the Brazilian player Roberto Firmino, and Senegalese goalkeeper Eduardo Mendy, goalkeeper of Chelsea of England and French Allan Irénée Saint-Maximin, who came from the ranks of Newcastle United, England. The deals did not stop at this point, but more international stars will be attracted to the four clubs that were acquired by the Saudi sovereign Public Investment Fund, in addition to the rest of the clubs participating in the Saudi Professional League, through a huge project that was launched under the name "Attracting Elite Players Project." The signing of the English star Jordan Henderson, captain of the Liverpool team, with the Dammam-based Al-Ettifaq is also remarkable in this respect. The team, which will be crowned with the title of the 49th edition of the Saudi Pro League competitions, will make history as it is an exceptional edition that witnesses the start of remarkable transformation in the history of Saudi football with generous government support to reach the desired goal of becoming one among the top ten professional leagues around the world. Going back to the history of the golden record of the Saudi League Championship, there are seven teams that managed to lift the championship title, and this list is led by Al-Hilal, clinching 18 titles throughout the league history. Hilal is the most decorated club in Asia winning 66 official trophies. It also holds the record for the most continental trophies in Asia. Al-Hilal bagged the league title five times in the last ten editions of the tournament, but it finished third, when Al-Ittihad emerged the champions while Al-Nassr came up as runner-up during the last season. Al-Ittihad clinched the Saudi Pro League title for the ninth time. It managed to win the championship after a hiatus of 14 years since 2009. The first league title won by Al-Ittihad was in 1981-1982. Al-Nassr is all poised to clinch the title after a gap of four years. The team's last title was in 2019 after a fierce competition with its traditional rivals Al-Hilal. Al-Shabab team, which was in the fourth position in the previous season, had to its credits six titles, the last of which was in 2012, but it was unable to return to the podium despite its presence in the competition circle in most of the seasons after winning its last title. Al-Shabab lifted its first title in 1991. Al-Ahly, which is returning strongly to the league competitions, had three titles to its credit, the last of which was in 2016, a title that came after a gap of many years. Al-Ettifaq had won two titles in the eighties. The team started a vigorous journey after concluding contract with the Englishman Stephen Gerrard, the former Liverpool player, to lead the team technically in the new season, in addition to signing deals with the English Henderson and Moses Dembley. As for the Al-Ahsa-based Al-Fateh, it won the title one time and that was in 2012-2013 season. The new season is also witnessing the Jeddah derby between rival clubs Al-Ahli and Al-Ittihad. Al-Ahli came back to the league after its relegation to the ranks of the first-division clubs in the previous season.
