Roma score commercial goal with Saudi signing

Peter Dovgan/UK Sports Pics Ltd/Alamy via Reuters

• Al-Hilal defender joins for $3.35m
• First Saudi deal with major Euro league
• Roma shirt sponsor is Saudi company

Italian football club AS Roma will be anticipating commercial opportunities that might arise after it signed 25-year-old Saudi Arabian defender Saud Abdulhamid this week. 

Abdulhamid joined Roma from Al-Hilal in a deal worth $3.35 million.

The transfer deal is the first involving a Saudi player and a major European league. 

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“When I received the offer, I was left speechless,” Abdulhamid told the club’s television channel. “I felt like there was no way I could reject it. Being here is such a great achievement from a personal point of view.”

Roma already has links to the kingdom. Saudi Arabian entertainment event organiser Riyadh Season is its front-of-shirt sponsor after a two-year deal was struck in 2023, worth around $8.4 million per year.

Abdulhamid’s transfer marks a change from the multi-million dollar moves by players heading in the opposite direction from Europe into the kingdom.

To suggest this could be the start of a trend would be wide of the mark – on the day Abdulhamid signed his contract at the Stadio Olympic, Portuguese defender Joao Cancelo was filling his boots at Saudi Pro League champions Al-Hilal in a deal reported to be worth £21 million.

Saudi Pro League clubs last year spent close to $1 billion recruiting stars of the game including Neymar, Riyad Mahrez, Karim Benzema, Fabinho and Sadie Mane. 

While transfer activity has been more subdued this summer, Saudi clubs have still managed to spend more than $231 million (as of August 27), according to Transfermarkt. The Saudi transfer window is set to close on October 6.

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“Saudi Arabia has always had talented football players and now this talent is playing domestically alongside some of the world’s biggest stars, it seems inevitable that the kingdom’s footballers will further improve,” said Simon Chadwick, professor of sport and geopolitical economy at Skema Business School in France.

“However, Saud Abdulhamid’s move to Roma is somewhat premature and likely to have been a result of the Italian club’s ongoing pursuit of commercial and financial opportunities in the Gulf state.”

Abdulhamid has proven to be an accomplished right-back. He made 72 appearances and scored four goals during his two-year stint in Riyadh at the Kingdom Arena, helping Jorge Jesus’s side win a domestic treble last season.

He made his debut for Saudi Arabia in September 2019 and has gone on to make 36 appearances for the senior national team. 

He also marked Lionel Messi during Saudi Arabia’s historic 2-1 win over Argentina at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

“We should expect further Roma interest in Saudi football until such time that expectations around Saudi Arabia as a potential source of cash begins to dissipate,” said Chadwick.