{"id":16291,"date":"2025-11-27T14:18:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T12:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/17290\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:31:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:31:30","slug":"17290","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/17290\/","title":{"rendered":"Only Ronaldo worth his pay: Saudi former-sports Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Former Saudi Sports Minister Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad said Cristiano Ronaldo who joined Al Nassr in December 2022 is the only foreign player in the Saudi Pro League who truly deserves his multi-million-Dollar salary.<\/div>\n<div data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\"><\/div>\n<div>Prince Abdullah, who was in the post from 2014 to 2017 before the huge influx of foreign players that has transformed the league also warned that the influx is sidelining local talent and threatening the national team\u2019s future.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">In an interview with the Fi Al-Marama Television program on Al-Arabiya, Abdullah called for urgent reforms to protect Saudi players and ensure competitiveness ahead of the 2034 World Cup, which the kingdom will host.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Ronaldo is the only foreign player worth what he earns because of the global exposure he brings to the league and the country,&#8221; he said of the Portuguese forward whose annual salary has been estimated at $211 million $4 million a week.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Many others are paid far more than they deserve.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div>Prince Abdullah said Saudi players have become \u201cextras\u201d since the number of foreign players per team on matchdays rose to eight, urging a cut to seven and more investment in youth development.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Right now, building a strong league is coming at the expense of the national team,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We need a clear plan to prepare for 2034.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>He also called for hiring elite coaches for youth categories and warned that without structural changes, Saudi players will struggle to regain prominence.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Prince Abdullah, whose concerns about refereeing standards during his tenure led to him appointing former English referee Howard Webb as director of referees for the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, also suggested scheduling big matches on Thursdays to enable top European referees to take charge.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16292,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-16291","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Abdullah called for urgent reforms to protect Saudi players.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Abdullah called for urgent reforms to protect Saudi players.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/16291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/16291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20162,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/16291\/revisions\/20162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=16291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}