The recent move by the captain of the senior national team of Nigeria William Troost-Ekong to Saudi Arabia has led to speculations that more players of the team could follow suit by moving to the high paying league, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Ekong abandoned the lure of playing in the UEFA Champions League with Greek side PAOK in favour of a move to newly promoted Al Khalood in the Saudi Pro League for a wage, which we gathered is in the region of three times what was earning with the champions of Greece.
Saudi Arabia have been able to lure lot of top players to their league using their ability to pay much more than most teams in European leagues. One player who turned down their overtures was Nigeria international winger Samuel Chukwueze.
Chukwueze revealed in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, that he received an offer in the region of $10m a year prior to making his decision to stay to join AC Milan from Villarreal last summer.
” Money? If it had been a problem, I would have signed in Saudi Arabia. A year ago they wanted me. $10m net? No, it was much more”, he said.
“My mind was set only on Milan . My agent told me: ‘Hey, look, there’s this money…’. But I didn’t bother: ‘I don’t want to go anywhere else’. So he gave up. If that money comes, it will come. The most important thing now is to believe in myself, I’m still young, I want to make it, I have to stay in Europe”.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
