Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Saudi Pro League, Aymeric Laporte, Al Nassr, Cristiano Ronaldo, Football, Transfers
Tom Jenkins
Topics: Saudi Pro League, Aymeric Laporte, Al Nassr, Cristiano Ronaldo, Football, Transfers
Cristiano Ronaldo's side are set to lose one of their star names this summer, after he publicly criticised life following the move.
The Saudi Pro League was put on the map in 2023 when Ronaldo made the shock move to Al-Nassr.
Since then, some of the world's biggest names followed the Portuguese superstar, with the likes of Neymar, Karim Benzema, Sadio Mane, and Ngolo Kante joining the SPL.
However, despite the league attracting huge talent, keeping it has proved a different matter, with Jhon Duran only lasting 13 games at Al-Nassr.
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And now, another one of Ronaldo's high-profile teammates is heading to the exit door, as Jorge Jesus confirmed Aymeric Laporte will be leaving the club.
"Laporte is going to leave and a center-back will be coming in," Jesús said after a friendly with Toulouse.
The Frenchman scored eight goals across 47 appearances for the Saudi club.
This comes over a year after the former Man City star hit out at his treatment in Saudi Arabia, claiming that many players were not satisfied.
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"It's a big change compared to Europe, but in the end it's all adaptation," Laporte told Spanish newspaper Diario AS.
"They haven't made it easy for us. In fact, there are many players that are dissatisfied," he added.
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Laporte claimed that European clubs take better care of their players and revealed the club had not followed through with some of their previous promises.
"They do look after us but not enough for my liking. That is to say, in Europe they pay you a good salary, but they take better care of you," he continued.
"I speak from my own experience and I don't know what the experience of others is like. For my part, what I have seen is that they try to bring you in, but then there is the day-to-day life and that is different."
"The ultimatum what you give them doesn't matter to them," Laporte said.
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"I mean, they're really going about their business. You negotiate something and then they don't accept it after you have signed it. ... It's a bit of a bummer that I don't know [would happen] if in Europe.
"Of course, the same thing that they take away from you in that respect, they compensate in other ways."
"Let's be honest, many of us have also come here not only for football," Laporte said.
"Many of us are happy with that [financial gain], but I am also looking for something beyond that is not the economic part.
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"In terms of quality of life, I expected something different because in the end, here you spend three hours a day in the car. In Riyadh, you spend a lot of time in the car because of the traffic."