The soccer clubs in the Saudi Premier League spent SR189.6 million on bringing in 61 foreign players for the 2008-09 football season. Al-Hilal tops the list of foreign spending at SR72.4m – the highest figure since the inception of the league – followed by Al-Ahli at SR25.12m, Al-Nasr at SR22.2m and Al-Shabab at SR21.4m. Following the four are: Al-Ittihad with SR18m, Al-Ittifaq with SR8.5m, Al-Wehda with SR6.9, Al-Watani with SR5.8, Najran with SR1.7m, and finally Abha, which has spent a mere SR750,000 on recruiting foreign talent. Of those 61 foreigners brought in, the Swedish international Wilhelmsson was the most expensive, costing Al-Hilal SR52 million. He is followed by Al-Nasr striker Razak Omotoyossi from Benin at SR12m, then Luis Carlos, Al-Shabab's Brazilian who cost SR9.6m, Al-Ittihad's Moroccan Abu Sharwan costing SR8.3m, and the Bolivian Ronaldo Raldes who cost Al-Hilal SR6.6m. Other sizeable outlays were made by Al-Hilal on Libyan Tariq Al-Tayeb and Romanian Radoi who cost the Riyadh club SR6.4m and SR6m respectively, as well as Egyptian Emad Mut'ib for whose services Al-Ittihad paid SR5.6m, and the Brazilians Camacho and Ricardo for whom Al-Shabab paid SR3.7 million Riyals each.
