Saudi Arabia: Cristiano Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Neves and Karou Mitoma are all a part of the biggest football change in 30 years

The Saudi Professional League (SPL) first gained the world’s attention after Cristiano Ronaldo made the move to the Middle East at the turn of the year. The Portugal captain joined Al-Nassr - one of the country's 'Big Four' clubs, alongside with bitter rivals Al-Hilal and Jeddah-based giants Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli.

These teams were all bought by the the country's Public Investment Fund (PIF), the same organisation that purchased Newcastle United for £300m in September 2021, giving them the unlimited cash supplies to attract some of the biggest names in world football.

Ballon d'Or winner Karim Benzema, Chelsea midfielder N'Golo Kante and Celtic star man Jota have joined champions Ittihad to work with former Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo. Elsewhere, Kalidou Koulibaly, Ruben Neves and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic have signed for the 18-time title winners Hilal.

Al-Ahli have also been busy this window, purchasing Premier League stars Roberto Firmino and Edouard Mendy, with treble-winner Riyad Mahrez set to join them soon.

The signings of elder statesmen like Benzema and Kante did not raise too much alarm within European football, but the signatures of players in their prime such as Ruben Neves, plus the attempts to lure away some of the Premier League's best current players; including the likes of Bernardo Silva, Son Heung-min and Karou Mitoma, have meant the footballing superpowers have begun to sit up and take notice of what could be a seismic shift in the game.

The Saudi's aim is to make their league one of the world's top ten in terms of revenue. The clubs are not bound by financial regulations such as financial fair play, which allows them to offer eye-watering sums of cash to players, deals their European counterparts simply cannot match.

The clubs therefore see that the attraction of these superstars will offer greater commercial opportunities, the offerings of more lucrative TV deals and advanced merchandising and ticket sales.

The saplings of this plan are already starting to become visible. Al-Nassr have recently signed a shirt deal with Nike, with the club seeing a 100% increase in the number of shirts sold since Ronaldo joined. The club will wear these shirts in friendlies against European powerhouses Benfica, PSG and Inter Milan later this month.

The wealth powering this dream is unlikely to run-out anytime soon either. PIF are estimated to be the biggest sovereign wealth fund in the world, having purchased golf’s new PGA-LIV for £3billion, alongside acuiring Newcastle for £300m and reported attempts to snap up F1 for a further £20billion.

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So where do the issues lie? Firstly, many feel these attempts by Saudi officials to make the country a major sporting player is an attempt to clean their global image (aka sport washing).

LGBTQ+ rights are not recognised in the country, while the fate of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashogg, who was seized and murdered in Istanbul, has created a depiction of a country lacking in freedom, inclusion or forward-thinking politics.

On the footballing side of things, the standard of play is still nowhere near that of the European leagues. Many of the teams would struggle to compete at the top half of League Two and will take a number of years before they are even remotely close to offering a standard of top-flight football similar to that of Turkey or the Netherlands.

All teams in the SPL are restricted to eight foreign players being apart of their 25-man playing squads, limiting the amount of star-power involvement that can help impact the quality of football. Al Nassar have already filled their quota with the latest signing of former Manchester United left-back Alex Telles.

Whether this is a good or bad thing for football will be discussed at length over the coming months and years, but what we do know is this revolution is hear to stay, unlike that of the failed attempts in the past by China, Japan, Russia and many more from the East.

Why is this? Because Saudi Arabia is a football-mad country. The top cup games in Riyadh attract 60,000 fans and the country has always been a regional and continental powerhouse, with the national team appearing at six World Cups, as well as winning three Asian Cups. There is a footballing culture already established that the higher-powers feel they can profit from.

Love it or hate it, the Saudi Pro League is on the rise and there is very little anyone can do to stop it.