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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Paul MacInnes in Jeddah

Saudi Pro League insists it will soon be ‘for exceptional players only’

Roberto Firmino celebrates after scoring for Al-Ahli against Al-Hazm.
Roberto Firmino, who scored a hat-trick in his first game for Al-Ahli, is one of the Saudi Pro League’s new big names. Photograph: Abdul Ghani Bashir Issa/MB Media/Getty Images

The director of football for the Saudi Pro League, Michael Emenalo, has said the upstart competition wants all the world’s top players and that it will not take long before it will be a league for “exceptional players only”.

Emenalo was speaking on the opening weekend of the Pro League season, when a number of high-profile signings from across the world are making their debut in the Gulf. The former Chelsea technical director says “the goal is to become sustainable” but more deals will be done before the end of the summer and will continue in future windows.

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