Al Hilal offered Paulo Dybala life-changing amount of money to play at Club World Cup on short-term deal and he said no

Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal reportedly offered Roma forward Paulo Dybala a huge amount of money to play for them at the FIFA Club World Cup, but he still rejected their approach.

The newly expanded version of the FIFA Club World Cup is well underway, with Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain among the teams to get their campaign underway with victories.

One of the many changes to the tournament involves transfers.

Teams were allowed an “exceptional registration window”, allowing them to bring in players before the tournament, which was the case for Trent Alexander-Arnold’s move from Liverpool to Real Madrid.

The registration period ran from June 1-10 for teams taking part in the Club World Cup before shutting and reopening on June 16 until the end of August.

Clubs also had the option to offer short-term contracts to out-of-contract players, given that most footballers’ deals run out on June 30, but the tournament runs into July.

And this was reportedly the case for Roma’s Dybala, who is contracted to the Italian side until June 2026.

According to Argentinian journalist Cesar Luis Merlo, the 31-year-old was offered a short-term deal by Al Hilal to participate in the Club World Cup.

Merlo claims that Dybala was offered around €10m to just play in the tournament, but he still said no.

And instead of participating in the tournament, Dybala recently made an appearance alongside Sergio Aguero and Leandro Paredes on a podcast and called out a Lazio star, according to Corriere dello Sport.

Dybala and French midfielder Matteo Guendouzi clashed in a fiery Rome derby back in 2024, and there’s still tension between the pair as the Roma man has claimed that Guendouzi ‘picks on’ young players.

Translated from Spanish to English, Dybala said: “That Frenchman has a big mouth and he especially annoys the young people; he always picks on them.

Paulo Dybala and Leandro Paredes (Credit:Getty)

“He used to tell them: ‘I’ll buy you a ticket, I’ll make you go home’, he always did that to young people.

“For example, [Matias] Soule played for Frosinone the year before and told us that he always told them: ‘I’ll buy you one’.

“It made me very angry, so on the pitch I went to look for him. We told each other everything.

“Then I remembered that they had just given me the shin guard with the picture of the World Cup (won against France), and I showed it to him. He didn’t say anything.”