This season, Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr is grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons.
FIFA has given a ban to the club that signed Cristiano Ronaldo last season, preventing the nine-time Saudi Pro League champions from signing any new players.
The Saudi side’s 173 million pound deal for the five-time Ballon D’or winner appears to have prompted a new flow of big European stars going to Saudi Arabia this summer transfer window.
European stars including Karim Benzema, N’golo Kante and Roberto Firmino have found their way to the Saudi Pro League.
This season, Al-Nassr has added to their lineup with the signing of Marcelo Brozovic from Inter. However, the squad is now banned from signing any more players owing to their failure to pay the add-ons from a contract that brought striker Ahmed Musa to the Saudi team in 2018.
Musa joined the Saudi Arabian Pro League club in a 16.50 million euro deal 5 years ago after he impressed at the World Cup in Russia.
The club failed to pay the owed add-ons, which totalled around 390,000 pounds to Leicester City as part of their agreement for the Nigerian striker, according to the FIFA ruling, which forbids domestic and international transfers for 3 transfer windows.
Since all Saudi clubs appear to be engaging in a trolley dash this summer, Al-Nassr will need to make the payment in order to lift the ban and return to the market.