Instead of a career, Neves chooses monetary security. Another great player is heading to Saudi Arabia

Formerly China, now Saudi Arabia. Rúben Neves is heading to Al-Hilal, who was expected to move to a European elite team. Barcelona themselves were very interested, but the Portuguese midfielder chose a different path.

Neves came to the Premier League back in 2017, when Wolverhampton bought him from Porto for €18 million.

Since then, he has steadily improved and was already expected to move to one of Europe’s top clubs last year. The most speculated club at the time was Manchester United, who were looking for midfielders.

Since autumn last year, there has been speculation about Barcelona’s interest, which, according to Goal, had plans to acquire the Portuguese midfielder in exchange for Ansa Fati. However, the Spanish winger was against this exchange and so the whole thing fell through.

Now, however, Sky Sports has confirmed that Neves is headed to the Saudi Pro League, where he will meet compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo and also Karim Benzema, who recently joined Al-Ittihad FC.

Neves, who celebrated his 26th birthday in the spring, has played in 41 games, including six goals. He is also a recent regular in the Portuguese national team’s starting line-up.

So we are talking about a player who is entering the best years of his career and certainly has all the prerequisites to play in the starting line-up of a top European team, as evidenced by the great interest of Barcelona, but there is no doubt about the possible interest of other clubs.

The transfer should be officially announced within the next week and it should be noted that it probably won’t be the last big departure to Saudi Arabia this summer.

According to the English media, star players N’Golo Kante and Hakim Ziyech could also move to the Saudi Pro League. While no one doubts that other names will soon appear.

Source: Relevo, Goal, Athletic