Saudi Arabia are 'looking for third division players', willing to offer huge salary and house

Football chiefs in Saudi Arabia are looking to continue their takeover of football by recruiting players for their third division.

Cristiano Ronaldo was the first high-profile arrival to the Saudi Pro League, signing a whopping £173 million-a-year contract just over a year ago.

He's since been followed by a slew of stars, including Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kante, Ruben Neves, Kalidou Koulibaly, Roberto Firmino, Marcelo Brozovic, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Aymeric Laporte and Jordan Henderson.

But there have even been players who have moved to the lower leagues in Saudi, while Ashleigh Plumptre became the first big female addition after signing for Al Ittihad.

A company called FutbolJobs, which has more than 100,000 users, have been advertising for players to play in the third tier.

Valentin Botella Nicolas, the company's CEO, believes Saudi are not only looking for big stars and want to restructure their entire system with the help of European players.

Image: Getty

"For a few months now, we have been receiving a large number of offers that came from Saudi Arabia, of all categories and levels," Nicolas told MARCA.

"It was an offer that we put out in June and that went viral a few weeks later. The truth is that the feedback we had was overwhelming. You could count thousands of daily interactions, by email, social networks and WhatsApp requesting information about that offer in concrete .

"At that moment, we realised that this market was already a reality and football people verified that the demand was not only for big stars."

Image: Futbol Jobs

The offer Nicolas is referring to was for a salary of €3,000-4,000 per month, with a house also included.

The advert stressed that it was "urgent", while a fresh offer posted is for a first division player and includes a salary of €2.5 million.

935 users applied for a position in the first and second division within the women's game, where the salary was advertised at €4,500 and the player had to have played at the Women's World Cup.

Topics: Saudi Arabia, Saudi Pro League, Premier League

Josh Lawless

Josh is a sports journalist who specialises in football and wrestling. He has been published by Curzon Ashton FC, Late Tackle, Manchester City FC, The Mirror, Read Man City and Manchester Evening News. He provides coverage of professional wrestling and has interviewed some of the biggest names in the field - including the first UK interview with The Hardy Boyz after their return to WWE. He has never sported a pair of Lonsdale Slip-ons, contrary to reports.

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