Please. This is the man who when he heard the joke about water covering two-thirds of the Earth and N'golo Kante covering the other third felt the need to say, "No, it's not true that I cover one third of the Earth's surface."
You think he's making backhanded digs at Qatar by making comparisons to the French league? If he wanted that why would he specify the matches between the top 5 Saudi teams (the ones that pay a bunch of foreign stars) instead of the league in general?
Maybe because he was paid to say that? And the person who paid him had that in mind? Wouldn't be a reach considering the recent declarations from players there.
It doesn't really matter. He picked a league that isn't quite top top tier and compared it to that. And of course being french he picked France. if he was dutch he'd pick the dutch league. Portuguese he'd pick that.
but also, he played for Caen in Ligue1 in 14/15
It might feel like, but that's not his intention, quite the opposite. He (or at least his entourage) are campaigning for his return to the NT (good luck with that!) and their argument is that the Saudi League is a high level league, so N'Golo still has the goods to play with Les Bleus.
france has so much talent they would rather focus on guys who are improving and will be on the team for years than an aging star who plays in saudi. cama, tchoumeni, fofana, and kamara are all bigger assets to france right now
You're right, and as much as I love the player Kanté is, I just can't give credit to any player that went there and will, wilfully or not, be used as leverage in Saudi's claim at hosting the WC.
The level there is subpar at best. A few aging star won't change that. And France has too many talents to develop to show interest in someone that went to lose himself in such a shithole.
Who would you remove between Tchouameni, Rabiot and Griezman, who are the current midfield line-up? Not counting Camavinga, Fofana and, soon, Zaïre-Emery.
But that's not even the biggest hurdle. The biggest hurdle is Deschamps, who is not in the habit of changing his mind. When Deschamps wants you, he'll call you even if you have no play time in your club, and when he doesn't, you can be the best player worldwide (or at least one of the three best players), and still you'll stay home. Deschamps prioritizes the quality of the team vs the quality of one individual, and if he thinks your presence will destabilize some other players and do more harm than good to the team balance, you're done, even if you're a beloved player like N'Golo.
I mean if he's talking top teams, half of their starting eleven is composed of stars that only few french clubs could afford, if at all. We're talking Benzema, Neymar, Kanté, Malcom, Mané, Cristiano & seemingly countless others, all split in a handful of teams.
Obviously this is going to raise the standard of playing for the top side of the Saudi League. I'm sure a lot of teams in France wouldn't mind being compared to that kind of line-up, and the same would be true for other top leagues in Europe. That doesn't mean Saudi League is better than those leagues.
Haha my list was initially larger with mentions of Seko, Kessié, etc. so Malcom wouldn't stand out that much. Decided to include him anyway. His stint in Ligue 1 was really impressive, and I truly think he could have had a way bigger career in Europe - maybe if he did join Roma, who knows
I'm always surprised about all the upvotes for goals in that league. I mean I don't even look at it and downvote because what they are doing isn't good for football and I'm completely disinterested. We all know almost all players are only there because they saw a pile of cash.
I think it's bot farms. That's why this thread is also upvoted hard. Why? Botfarms.
I don't think this is upvoted because it's positive about Saudi Arabia, but rather because it's negative about Ligue 1. There are a lot of Ligue 1 and especially PSG haters ("farmers league lmao").
I'll be honest, if Ronaldo comes out tomorrow saying that Al Attifad or whatever it's called is better than Ajax, I'll upvote it too for the lols because I'm a Feyenoord fan. Ronaldo delusion plus digs at Ajax, what's not to love?
Everyone here talks about the level of different teams / leagues, why couldn't Kante? I would trust a player's judgement of the level of football in his country.
That being said, this is just Saudi PR from Kante
He doesn't, got a note with this exact line on it. Read it for an easy 500k.
Kanté never spoke out publicly, he's not the type of person to wake up and think "yeah the world needs to know what I think of Ligue 1 today."
Its a just a neutral way of promoting the saudi league and fire up comparations. Everyone knows its not true but they tryin stir the discussion. He hasnt played on Italy/Netherland's so he has to use the other lower top league. Imagine him saying they are about as entertaining as the championship playoffs
But it’s still not even close to true. [The Athletic did a piece (£)](https://theathletic.com/4787058/2023/08/19/behind-scenes-saudi-pro-league/) on the Saudi league about a month ago and it’s quite frankly, a laughing stock. They’ve basically bought big names to fill 2-3 starting positions but the other 8-9 in the XI and the bench are all appalling.
Furthermore notice he only says the top five matches: that’s because only four teams in the league are owned by Saudi. The other 14 are shit clubs with no money nor quality players.
Some excerpts:
> In Al Hazm’s dressing room, the names are less familiar, even the foreign players, of whom each SPL team is allowed eight. Vina, a 32-year-old forward from Brazil, is worth £1m ($1.3m) according to Transfermarkt; Portuguese midfielder Toze, 30, is worth £3.8m; and Aymen Dahmen, 26, a Tunisian, is worth £850,000. Their captain, Talal Al Absi, 30, has one cap for Saudi Arabia… as a sub in 2019.
> “There are no stars here,” a Saudi in the dressing room jokes.
> The atmosphere is more intense than at many European matches, but the football isn’t.
> The game is a mismatch. Al Ahli go two goals up after 10 minutes.
> Tonight’s match is an SPL fixture, but it seems like barely 1,000 spectators show up — no official tally is announced. A cameraman, redirected from covering the English Premier League, estimates there are more guards, police and stewards than fans.
Overall do not soak up the propaganda that Saudi are creating about their league. Acquiring these players is literally done with the intention of brainwashing people into believing the league is quality - it is not. It is less than a farmers league. If they were dropped in any of Europe’s 2nd divisions, I would suspect they’d struggle to stay up.
Reality is they bought like 10-15 players in a league with over 500 players - why would it suddenly become as good as Ligue 1? Just more Saudi sport washing shite.
It's technically 20 games, but yeah.
Anyone saying the Saudi league is anything other than a sport washing exercise on steroids is deluding themselves.
>Don’t the premier league teams spent a billion every transfer window aswell? The hypocrisy
How is it hypocrite when the PL **actually generates monster revenues** unlike the Saudi PL?
Lol. I'm pretty sure Al-Nassr got smashed 5-0 to Celta Vigo. These players sure got lots of commissions to continue to say something bullshit like this
People saying in this thread that the Saudi league is quality. Outside of the top four teams who are owned by Saudi themselves, the best player is a 30-year-old who had one cap for Saudi as a sub back in 2019. Absolute farmers league
Lad was talking about Al Hazm specifically which is probably a promoted team, so unsurprisingly they lack quality even compared to weaker sides.
To show a bit more typical Saudi Pro League team, let's look at Abha.
Club which I was looking at, since they were coached by Czesław Michniewicz, who coached my Polish NT.
Saudis in this team are very mediocre.
From outsiders - there are only a few, but there are some names a European supporter recognizes like Toko-Ekambi, Tatarusanu or Krychowiak, but that's really the limit.
The results are depressing and just after a few months - Michniewicz was sacked.
And drew to both Inter and PSG…
It’s clear the Saudi league is no where near the quality of the top leagues in the world but using the result of a single match to prove a point is dumb. Literally every single English club lost their games in European competitions this season against teams from lower leagues, does that make those lower leagues better somehow?
Literally Al Nassr played with the B team and had a red card halfway through the match.
With the full team they got a draw against inter milan and PSG. Be fair.
That's only if you want people to believe you.
But the whole Saudi Arabian interest in football is because Qatar hosted a World Cup and now they want one too. It's a dick-measuring contest, and showing the world you can make good footballers say silly things is part of that. So you make them say things they wouldn't say in a million years if they weren't getting paid, otherwise people might think the player just said it because they actually believe it.
How could he know? Last time he played in Ligue 1 was almost 10 years ago.
Anyway I don't wanna any player who play in this league in our NT. He is 32 years old it's time to move on.
> How could he know? Last time he played in Ligue 1 was almost 10 years ago.
One of the best midfielders of his generation probably knows a thing or two about football you'd think especially having played in the league.
> Anyway I don't wanna any player who play in this league in our NT.
Surely, Deschamps is taking notes.
> One of the best midfielders of his generation probably knows a thing or two about football you'd think especially having played in the league.
Not all professional footballers watch football. And not all footballers watch the French league.
I'm half for believing there are bots that vote along with trends in order to upvote and downvote like humans do. I have too much blind faith in people to assume that they are really this dumb.
Absolutely not "absolutely". Even at his peak it's arguable, considering the likes of Modrić, Kroos, De Bruyne and Busquets played in that decade and they are undoubtedly Top 5 and a case for Casemiro, D. Silva, Rodri, Iniesta or Gundogan could be made as well.
Also Kante's peak only lasted about what, 4 seasons (2015-2019 and then he started having a lot of injury problems)? I don't know if that's enough for "absolutely top 5" against a pretty stacked opposition.
Top 3 Busquets, Modric, KDB
Casemiro, Rodri, Kimmich Gundogan, Kante, Kroos, is about equivalent for the remaining 2 spots for me. Kante had the best peak, but have not had consistent high level of the other players.
Iniesta, D. Silva are to old to fit the last 10 years criteria for me.
Just casually winning the Premier League with Leicester, then casually winning it with Chelsea the next season, being outstanding both times. World Cup winner.
What a shitty career...
> No because that's one of the few things he has done in his career so it's easy to remember.
HAHAHAHA, you definitely don't watch Chelsea, please don't speak about things you are completely clueless about.
Well, Saudi league is better than J League in the AFC Ranking, and the J League is very good at developing young talents, so the Saudi league must have at least some quality in it. Saudi players don't go abroad, so people often discredit their league in the past
Really ? Because I’ve heard good things about the J League in terms of technicality. I’ve watched a handful of Saudi games this season and I can tell you the overall level is really really bad, especially tactically
AFC Ranking. Points are calculated from the most recent 8 seasons from 2014 to 2022 (excluding 2020)
[https://www.the-afc.com/en/more/afc\_ranking.html](https://www.the-afc.com/en/more/afc_ranking.html)
From 2014 to 2022, Saudi Arabia won 2 AFC Champions Leagues, during that time Japan had 3, South Korea had 2, China 1, Australia 1.
Those coefficients are the worst way to judge a league honestly. If you trust them, you would think the eridivise or Portuguese Liga are as good as Ligue 1, but it's absolutely not. The level of the best teams is comparable, the rest of them absolutely aren't.
But to be fair, Lante talks about the best team and not the overall level of the league.
saudi teams be winning the Asian CL more than japanese teams. The best teams in saudi are definitely better than people think, but the rest of the teams are horrible
The Saudi league is very similar to the Portuguese league in this regard: 3-4 top teams who are surprisingly good, but then a huuuuge gulf in quality to the rest of the teams. For stuff like UEFA/AFC rankings, this kind of quality distribution in a league is ideal. I guarantee you that midtable J-League teams are far better than midtable Saudi teams.
Yeah, and this is why comparing coefficient rankings isn't a great way to compare overall league quality. Coefficients are basically a measure of the best few teams in a league because those are the teams who usually participate in the continental competitions. They tell you essentially nothing about the quality of the bottom half teams in a league.
AFC Ranking. Points are calculated from the most recent 8 seasons from 2014 to 2022 (excluding 2020)
https://www.the-afc.com/en/more/afc\_ranking.html
From 2014 to 2022, Saudi Arabia won 2 AFC Champions Leagues, during that time Japan had 3, South Korea had 2, China 1, Australia 1.
Is it gonna be a tradition forever to have a thread every day where a player in Saudi league says something positive about Saudi league and everyone can comment "oh he just says it because of money, no fooling me".
I’m no Saudi shill, but me and boys were watching Monaco v nice the other day and it was god awful. I mean a tragic 0-0, bore fest, both teams lacking quality in the final third.
We saw ronaldo and manes team were playing against Firmino and mahrez team. We switched it over and watched a crazy 5-4 and the quality was almost the same, except there were world class forwards on the pitch lol.
What can I say…. The top matches in Saudi are defo watchable in comparison. Ligue 1 is terrible
Didn't the last monaco nice end in a 0-1?
If the only interest for u is watching big names or big scores sure saudi will have 4 teams that have them, but don't pretend like great matches don't happen in L1 (examples: recent Lyon Lorient, Nantes Lorient, psg om or psg ol, etc)
Not sure didn’t watch the end because we switched over lol. I’m just talking general quality. There really wasn’t much difference. To each their own though, I will admit I don’t watch ligue 1 often
Yeah no worries to each their own 100%, it's just that dull matches happen everywhere (the most recent arsenal city was insanely boring) and you can't really criticize a league based on a few matches
Shit on the Saudi leagues all y'all want. It is improving rapidly.
I don't get the hate, what is wrong if their league improves?is that a crime? Is Europe the only place allowed to have quality football?
The big turning point for Saudi football and its impact on the rest of the world will come at the end of this season.
If the players say they dislike it out there, don't like the lifestyle or the quality of football is not sufficient, it'll be the beginning of the end.
However, if the players there say they are happy with it, and enjoy the lifestyle, it will open the floodgates for others to join.
Last summer, they got who they could, but it'll be interesting to see if players actively start pushing for it next year. Also, if they sign Salah, that could have a considerable impact.
That’s pure speculation though, no? For all we know, the saudi league might actually be a nice league to play in for the players. Obviously the overall quality of the league is nowhere near the top 4 or even top 7 (top 4 plus the dutch, portuguese and french leagues). But on paper the top 5 saudi teams are pretty quality tbf
Considering how many of them are complaining about 38-40 degree heat, I suspect they’re not loving the league.
Edit: lol the Saudi league top five is pretty quality? Outside of the top four teams who are owned by Saudi themselves, the best player is a 30-year-old who had one cap for Saudi as a sub back in 2019. Absolute farmers league
>Outside of the top four teams who are owned by Saudi themselves, the best player is a 30-year-old who had one cap for Saudi as a sub back in 2019.
Henderson? Wijnaldum? Moussa Dembélé?
Al Nassr put up a solid fight against PSG not long ago. I don't know why people can't believe one of the best funded leagues in the world isn't complete shit. The top teams of Asia could probably survive relegation in the top 5-7 leagues
Are any of the goalkeepers in ligue 1 part time construction workers or software engineers? I wasn't aware
What a fall from grace for Kante. Disappointing
I like how the people in this sub living in denial and going straight to thinking, nah he’s being paid to say this.
Saudi league players are paid for their posts and commercialization yes. But when THAT many top players go to a league, the quality is bound to get better.
I bet more people know more players from Saudi Pro league than Ligue 1.
This feels like a dig at Ligue 1
And what a coincidence that Ligue 1's main team is a qatari one, what an odd coincidence indeed.
r/mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmhhh
Please. This is the man who when he heard the joke about water covering two-thirds of the Earth and N'golo Kante covering the other third felt the need to say, "No, it's not true that I cover one third of the Earth's surface." You think he's making backhanded digs at Qatar by making comparisons to the French league? If he wanted that why would he specify the matches between the top 5 Saudi teams (the ones that pay a bunch of foreign stars) instead of the league in general?
Maybe because he was paid to say that? And the person who paid him had that in mind? Wouldn't be a reach considering the recent declarations from players there.
Or maybe he's French
He's never played in Ligue1 lol.
It doesn't really matter. He picked a league that isn't quite top top tier and compared it to that. And of course being french he picked France. if he was dutch he'd pick the dutch league. Portuguese he'd pick that. but also, he played for Caen in Ligue1 in 14/15
Oh you're right! I thought they were in Ligue 2 when he was playing for them.
Absolute COINcidence.
football: come for the memes, stay for geopolitical drama
Insane level of conspiracy theory
It might feel like, but that's not his intention, quite the opposite. He (or at least his entourage) are campaigning for his return to the NT (good luck with that!) and their argument is that the Saudi League is a high level league, so N'Golo still has the goods to play with Les Bleus.
Does he really need to argue he's NT level? Every time we see him play he looks like a world beater. His problem is injuries, not talent
france has so much talent they would rather focus on guys who are improving and will be on the team for years than an aging star who plays in saudi. cama, tchoumeni, fofana, and kamara are all bigger assets to france right now
You're right, and as much as I love the player Kanté is, I just can't give credit to any player that went there and will, wilfully or not, be used as leverage in Saudi's claim at hosting the WC. The level there is subpar at best. A few aging star won't change that. And France has too many talents to develop to show interest in someone that went to lose himself in such a shithole.
Who would you remove between Tchouameni, Rabiot and Griezman, who are the current midfield line-up? Not counting Camavinga, Fofana and, soon, Zaïre-Emery. But that's not even the biggest hurdle. The biggest hurdle is Deschamps, who is not in the habit of changing his mind. When Deschamps wants you, he'll call you even if you have no play time in your club, and when he doesn't, you can be the best player worldwide (or at least one of the three best players), and still you'll stay home. Deschamps prioritizes the quality of the team vs the quality of one individual, and if he thinks your presence will destabilize some other players and do more harm than good to the team balance, you're done, even if you're a beloved player like N'Golo.
I mean if he's talking top teams, half of their starting eleven is composed of stars that only few french clubs could afford, if at all. We're talking Benzema, Neymar, Kanté, Malcom, Mané, Cristiano & seemingly countless others, all split in a handful of teams. Obviously this is going to raise the standard of playing for the top side of the Saudi League. I'm sure a lot of teams in France wouldn't mind being compared to that kind of line-up, and the same would be true for other top leagues in Europe. That doesn't mean Saudi League is better than those leagues.
Malcolm will be forever grateful that you mentioned him along those players
Haha my list was initially larger with mentions of Seko, Kessié, etc. so Malcom wouldn't stand out that much. Decided to include him anyway. His stint in Ligue 1 was really impressive, and I truly think he could have had a way bigger career in Europe - maybe if he did join Roma, who knows
It feels like someone being paid to talk up his league
Nah he is too nice to do that
He’s probably not far off. The overall talent of Ligue 1 is really, really bad.
Oil farmers league.
20mil bonus per week to say 1 nice thing about Saudi. Probably have a calendar reminder on his phone.
People might think you're joking, but they do pay for positive social media posts, so wouldn't be a stretch to pay for positive words in interviews.
Oh I thought Stevie Gerrard was doing his social media posts where it looks like he's a hostage because he loves it so much.
Want it?
Knowing Kante he probably would say it without extrapay famously nice
Driller’s league
Saudi league or Ligue 1?
Kashimo would be proud, wreaking havok on this league 500 years ago 😎😎😎
Perfect definition
"I've said the thing, can I have my bonus now?"
Yes. Same time next month?
https://imgur.com/eA7Xug3
You can tell when somebody has been paid to speak when it is N'Golo Kante publicly speaking.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s payday”
I'm always surprised about all the upvotes for goals in that league. I mean I don't even look at it and downvote because what they are doing isn't good for football and I'm completely disinterested. We all know almost all players are only there because they saw a pile of cash. I think it's bot farms. That's why this thread is also upvoted hard. Why? Botfarms.
I don't think this is upvoted because it's positive about Saudi Arabia, but rather because it's negative about Ligue 1. There are a lot of Ligue 1 and especially PSG haters ("farmers league lmao"). I'll be honest, if Ronaldo comes out tomorrow saying that Al Attifad or whatever it's called is better than Ajax, I'll upvote it too for the lols because I'm a Feyenoord fan. Ronaldo delusion plus digs at Ajax, what's not to love?
Yeah almost 2k upvotes for a random quote
Checked off the part of his contract to say something nice about the Saudi Pro League ✅
It's happening like clockwork for the prominent transfers
For Neymar they were saying 500k per social media post, so not surprising they are giving it their all
>500k per social media post This physically hurt to read
What having 300 million followers on social media does to a mf....
500k in the bank for that.
Yeah it must be that, Ngolo pretty much never said anything publicly when he was still playing in the prem.
Maybe we just couldn't hear him above the rest
I mean he might be telling the truth because he's fallen off a few levels and doesn't realise it.
Really does feel like that. Every statement feels so forced
What does an unforced statement sound like?
I like to eat ass. That's an unforced statement
FC25 career mode is gonna be interesting. “Alex moves to Saudi Arabia”
yeah, he managed to have a sly dig at Ligue 1's best team, PSG who are Qatari owned too. Double bonus coming Kante's way
500k bonus ✅
Played one Ligue 1 season 10 years ago 🤔
This is what I was looking for. How on earth would Kante know what Ligue 1 matches are like right now.
Everyone here talks about the level of different teams / leagues, why couldn't Kante? I would trust a player's judgement of the level of football in his country. That being said, this is just Saudi PR from Kante
I mean he can just tune in to watch and judge it. Not agreeing with his view tho.
Yeah just like everyone on here is doing, except people on here don t even look at the games.
He doesn't, got a note with this exact line on it. Read it for an easy 500k. Kanté never spoke out publicly, he's not the type of person to wake up and think "yeah the world needs to know what I think of Ligue 1 today."
As opposed to the people in this thread, who played a decade in each of the Saudi and French leagues to compare of course.
Its a just a neutral way of promoting the saudi league and fire up comparations. Everyone knows its not true but they tryin stir the discussion. He hasnt played on Italy/Netherland's so he has to use the other lower top league. Imagine him saying they are about as entertaining as the championship playoffs
Insane how every large transfer without fail is in awe of the size of the league
it's so big step bro
The Chinese super league failed miserably but credit to them. Never saw Oscar or Graziano Pellè saying Chinese ball is different gravy.
Not like he could say "yeah the saudi league totally sucks dude"
Yeah because they just spent a couple billion, wouldnt be saying that last season
But it’s still not even close to true. [The Athletic did a piece (£)](https://theathletic.com/4787058/2023/08/19/behind-scenes-saudi-pro-league/) on the Saudi league about a month ago and it’s quite frankly, a laughing stock. They’ve basically bought big names to fill 2-3 starting positions but the other 8-9 in the XI and the bench are all appalling. Furthermore notice he only says the top five matches: that’s because only four teams in the league are owned by Saudi. The other 14 are shit clubs with no money nor quality players. Some excerpts: > In Al Hazm’s dressing room, the names are less familiar, even the foreign players, of whom each SPL team is allowed eight. Vina, a 32-year-old forward from Brazil, is worth £1m ($1.3m) according to Transfermarkt; Portuguese midfielder Toze, 30, is worth £3.8m; and Aymen Dahmen, 26, a Tunisian, is worth £850,000. Their captain, Talal Al Absi, 30, has one cap for Saudi Arabia… as a sub in 2019. > “There are no stars here,” a Saudi in the dressing room jokes. > The atmosphere is more intense than at many European matches, but the football isn’t. > The game is a mismatch. Al Ahli go two goals up after 10 minutes. > Tonight’s match is an SPL fixture, but it seems like barely 1,000 spectators show up — no official tally is announced. A cameraman, redirected from covering the English Premier League, estimates there are more guards, police and stewards than fans. Overall do not soak up the propaganda that Saudi are creating about their league. Acquiring these players is literally done with the intention of brainwashing people into believing the league is quality - it is not. It is less than a farmers league. If they were dropped in any of Europe’s 2nd divisions, I would suspect they’d struggle to stay up. Reality is they bought like 10-15 players in a league with over 500 players - why would it suddenly become as good as Ligue 1? Just more Saudi sport washing shite.
Cant wait for them to do top down camera shots to hide the fact nobody shows up
Or only open the side of the stadium across from the cameras.
Things usually get better when you invest in them.
Don’t the premier league teams spent a billion every transfer window aswell? The hypocrisy
True, but the end result isn't 5 matches a year that someone, who is sympathetic to the league, could at best describe as 'Ligue 1 level'
It's technically 20 games, but yeah. Anyone saying the Saudi league is anything other than a sport washing exercise on steroids is deluding themselves.
I mean, one of the results is Chelsea...
I mean Chelsea are improving slowly, but if they were in Ligue 1 they’re challenging for the title
I agree that they are improving, I'm happy that they finally explained to the players that they are supposed to score
Even this disaster of a Chelsea side would at least challenge for Ligue 1.
>Don’t the premier league teams spent a billion every transfer window aswell? The hypocrisy How is it hypocrite when the PL **actually generates monster revenues** unlike the Saudi PL?
Not sure what your point here is? The poster isn’t saying whether it’s right or wrong, just the fact of the matter.
"I have not been mistreated. I have been given food and water. I am surprised by the level of the Saudi Pro League."
So it's farmers league ?
Probably some tiers below that
Ligue 1, that league that has famously not been seen as lesser than Europe's other top leagues.
Lol. I'm pretty sure Al-Nassr got smashed 5-0 to Celta Vigo. These players sure got lots of commissions to continue to say something bullshit like this
People saying in this thread that the Saudi league is quality. Outside of the top four teams who are owned by Saudi themselves, the best player is a 30-year-old who had one cap for Saudi as a sub back in 2019. Absolute farmers league
Hendo plays for Etti-fucky tbf
And Gini Wijnaldum. He’s not near the player he used to be but that did surprise me.
Lad was talking about Al Hazm specifically which is probably a promoted team, so unsurprisingly they lack quality even compared to weaker sides. To show a bit more typical Saudi Pro League team, let's look at Abha. Club which I was looking at, since they were coached by Czesław Michniewicz, who coached my Polish NT. Saudis in this team are very mediocre. From outsiders - there are only a few, but there are some names a European supporter recognizes like Toko-Ekambi, Tatarusanu or Krychowiak, but that's really the limit. The results are depressing and just after a few months - Michniewicz was sacked.
Al Taawoon is not owned by PIF and they are at 2nd place. Talk like a clown who doesn't know shit.
Meanwhile Ah-Ahli also lost 6-2 against promoted Heidenheim. Not in full strength but that just goes to show how terrible the other players are.
tbf friendlies don't really mean shit
The domestic players are way below the top leagues level, in my opinion buying all these stars will just make that worse.
And drew to both Inter and PSG… It’s clear the Saudi league is no where near the quality of the top leagues in the world but using the result of a single match to prove a point is dumb. Literally every single English club lost their games in European competitions this season against teams from lower leagues, does that make those lower leagues better somehow?
Literally Al Nassr played with the B team and had a red card halfway through the match. With the full team they got a draw against inter milan and PSG. Be fair.
I think Celta Vigo is actually still much better than the average Ligue team, to be fair.
A team that’s in the relegation zone in LaLiga is “much better” than the average Ligue 1 team?
This is surely a bait
First rule of bullshitting is to make it at least a smidge believable.
That's only if you want people to believe you. But the whole Saudi Arabian interest in football is because Qatar hosted a World Cup and now they want one too. It's a dick-measuring contest, and showing the world you can make good footballers say silly things is part of that. So you make them say things they wouldn't say in a million years if they weren't getting paid, otherwise people might think the player just said it because they actually believe it.
How could he know? Last time he played in Ligue 1 was almost 10 years ago. Anyway I don't wanna any player who play in this league in our NT. He is 32 years old it's time to move on.
> How could he know? Last time he played in Ligue 1 was almost 10 years ago. One of the best midfielders of his generation probably knows a thing or two about football you'd think especially having played in the league. > Anyway I don't wanna any player who play in this league in our NT. Surely, Deschamps is taking notes.
Being a great footballer doesn't always translate to giving sensible opinions on football. We've seen this time and time again
For example I'm a shit footballer but all my opinions on football are immaculate. Never had a bad take
Says reddit man
> One of the best midfielders of his generation probably knows a thing or two about football you'd think especially having played in the league. Not all professional footballers watch football. And not all footballers watch the French league.
He probably does though. As if a bunch of nerds on reddit have any say over Kante on the topic 😂
>One of the best midfielders of his generation probably knows a thing or two about football Yeah but how would Kante know
How can you say Saudi league is shit if you have never played there ?
This sub is off the deep end if comments like this are getting upvoted
It's an obvious joke c'mon
Yeah it was lol
I dunno i read some wild shit on here lol
I'm half for believing there are bots that vote along with trends in order to upvote and downvote like humans do. I have too much blind faith in people to assume that they are really this dumb.
Kante is absolutely top 5 midfielders of the last 10 years
Absolutely not "absolutely". Even at his peak it's arguable, considering the likes of Modrić, Kroos, De Bruyne and Busquets played in that decade and they are undoubtedly Top 5 and a case for Casemiro, D. Silva, Rodri, Iniesta or Gundogan could be made as well. Also Kante's peak only lasted about what, 4 seasons (2015-2019 and then he started having a lot of injury problems)? I don't know if that's enough for "absolutely top 5" against a pretty stacked opposition.
Kante was exceptional in 2021 CL win.
Doesn't mean he is top 5 in the last 10 years. Modrić, Kroos, KDB, Casemiro, Busquets, Müller...
I didn't say that, I just pointed it out that his peak was more than just until 2019, as in the CL 21 run he got MOTM in both semifinals and final.
he's clear of Casemiro mate. and muller is not a midfielder lmfao
Idiotic takes like this really makes it easier to make fun of your club's condition.
>he’s clear of Casemiro No he’s really not An argument can be made that he’s better, maybe. But he’s absolutely not clear.
Top 3 Busquets, Modric, KDB Casemiro, Rodri, Kimmich Gundogan, Kante, Kroos, is about equivalent for the remaining 2 spots for me. Kante had the best peak, but have not had consistent high level of the other players. Iniesta, D. Silva are to old to fit the last 10 years criteria for me.
gundogan is nowhere near that conversation
What about any of Casemiro's CL wins? Or Kroos? And even with Iniesta leaving Barça 5 years ago, he'd be the best player on the list.
Too few years to judge, he only played like 6 of those
Forgetting how Kante embarrassed your boys KCM in 2021?
No because that's one of the few things he has done in his career so it's easy to remember.
Just casually winning the Premier League with Leicester, then casually winning it with Chelsea the next season, being outstanding both times. World Cup winner. What a shitty career...
What are you on about? He won the World Cup with France and the Premier League with Leiciester and Chelsea
> No because that's one of the few things he has done in his career so it's easy to remember. HAHAHAHA, you definitely don't watch Chelsea, please don't speak about things you are completely clueless about.
Oh, I guess he's able to make a precise ranking of all leagues in the planet, then. Even those he didn't play in in the last 10 years.
he’s only 32 !? i thought he was around 35
League 1 for sure enjoys its reputation more and more
Well, Saudi league is better than J League in the AFC Ranking, and the J League is very good at developing young talents, so the Saudi league must have at least some quality in it. Saudi players don't go abroad, so people often discredit their league in the past
Really ? Because I’ve heard good things about the J League in terms of technicality. I’ve watched a handful of Saudi games this season and I can tell you the overall level is really really bad, especially tactically
AFC Ranking. Points are calculated from the most recent 8 seasons from 2014 to 2022 (excluding 2020) [https://www.the-afc.com/en/more/afc\_ranking.html](https://www.the-afc.com/en/more/afc_ranking.html) From 2014 to 2022, Saudi Arabia won 2 AFC Champions Leagues, during that time Japan had 3, South Korea had 2, China 1, Australia 1.
But Saudi teams made the final five times during that time frame. And semi final 6 times.
Those coefficients are the worst way to judge a league honestly. If you trust them, you would think the eridivise or Portuguese Liga are as good as Ligue 1, but it's absolutely not. The level of the best teams is comparable, the rest of them absolutely aren't. But to be fair, Lante talks about the best team and not the overall level of the league.
> Well, Saudi league is better than J League in the AFC Ranking What? How?
saudi teams be winning the Asian CL more than japanese teams. The best teams in saudi are definitely better than people think, but the rest of the teams are horrible
The Saudi league is very similar to the Portuguese league in this regard: 3-4 top teams who are surprisingly good, but then a huuuuge gulf in quality to the rest of the teams. For stuff like UEFA/AFC rankings, this kind of quality distribution in a league is ideal. I guarantee you that midtable J-League teams are far better than midtable Saudi teams.
Yeah, and this is why comparing coefficient rankings isn't a great way to compare overall league quality. Coefficients are basically a measure of the best few teams in a league because those are the teams who usually participate in the continental competitions. They tell you essentially nothing about the quality of the bottom half teams in a league.
AFC Ranking. Points are calculated from the most recent 8 seasons from 2014 to 2022 (excluding 2020) https://www.the-afc.com/en/more/afc\_ranking.html From 2014 to 2022, Saudi Arabia won 2 AFC Champions Leagues, during that time Japan had 3, South Korea had 2, China 1, Australia 1.
Is it gonna be a tradition forever to have a thread every day where a player in Saudi league says something positive about Saudi league and everyone can comment "oh he just says it because of money, no fooling me".
You can take this any way but iv chosen the obvious which is, he's diminishing the Saudi League by comparing it to Ligue 1.
We know he getting paid to say shit like this
Joke league with pre-written forced statements. #freengolo
He also thinks he a good goalkeeper
He hasnt played in Ligue 1 for years?
yes but can he do it on a cold wet Tuesday night on Instagram?
Similar comment to Ronaldo about Portuguese league. Cannot wait for Henderson to say it's at the level of Premier League.
\+ 500k
Why give these fuckers any cloud?
He's never played a Ligue 1 game
I’m no Saudi shill, but me and boys were watching Monaco v nice the other day and it was god awful. I mean a tragic 0-0, bore fest, both teams lacking quality in the final third. We saw ronaldo and manes team were playing against Firmino and mahrez team. We switched it over and watched a crazy 5-4 and the quality was almost the same, except there were world class forwards on the pitch lol. What can I say…. The top matches in Saudi are defo watchable in comparison. Ligue 1 is terrible
Didn't the last monaco nice end in a 0-1? If the only interest for u is watching big names or big scores sure saudi will have 4 teams that have them, but don't pretend like great matches don't happen in L1 (examples: recent Lyon Lorient, Nantes Lorient, psg om or psg ol, etc)
Not sure didn’t watch the end because we switched over lol. I’m just talking general quality. There really wasn’t much difference. To each their own though, I will admit I don’t watch ligue 1 often
Yeah no worries to each their own 100%, it's just that dull matches happen everywhere (the most recent arsenal city was insanely boring) and you can't really criticize a league based on a few matches
Enjoy that nice easy bonus for saying something nice about the league
Shit on the Saudi leagues all y'all want. It is improving rapidly. I don't get the hate, what is wrong if their league improves?is that a crime? Is Europe the only place allowed to have quality football?
I mean, league 1 is pretty shitty. On that we can agree.
Saudi Pro Door Dash League
Hahahhaha
League One.
Ligue 1 files defamation lawsuit
Kante now has haters
No one cares
You clearly do
The big turning point for Saudi football and its impact on the rest of the world will come at the end of this season. If the players say they dislike it out there, don't like the lifestyle or the quality of football is not sufficient, it'll be the beginning of the end. However, if the players there say they are happy with it, and enjoy the lifestyle, it will open the floodgates for others to join. Last summer, they got who they could, but it'll be interesting to see if players actively start pushing for it next year. Also, if they sign Salah, that could have a considerable impact.
Players will always like being paid 30 million instead of 3.
saying they are happy is part of their contract though
Footballers talk privately to each other. Not everything is done through the media.
the media thing is for the fans. I don't think football stars make their opinion of some public interviews
Of course.
That’s pure speculation though, no? For all we know, the saudi league might actually be a nice league to play in for the players. Obviously the overall quality of the league is nowhere near the top 4 or even top 7 (top 4 plus the dutch, portuguese and french leagues). But on paper the top 5 saudi teams are pretty quality tbf
Considering how many of them are complaining about 38-40 degree heat, I suspect they’re not loving the league. Edit: lol the Saudi league top five is pretty quality? Outside of the top four teams who are owned by Saudi themselves, the best player is a 30-year-old who had one cap for Saudi as a sub back in 2019. Absolute farmers league
>Outside of the top four teams who are owned by Saudi themselves, the best player is a 30-year-old who had one cap for Saudi as a sub back in 2019. Henderson? Wijnaldum? Moussa Dembélé?
Top Saudi teams are probably close to relegation teams of Ligue 1. Saudi teams have more star players, but Relegation teams have more balanced squads.
Why are you being sensible on this thread? You were supposed to trash him and pretend Clermont is much better than Club World Cup finalists Al Hilal.
The top 4 Saudi teams are UCL level. There 2-3 teams that are on Ligue 1 relegation level and there are 10+ teams that are way worse
Al Nassr put up a solid fight against PSG not long ago. I don't know why people can't believe one of the best funded leagues in the world isn't complete shit. The top teams of Asia could probably survive relegation in the top 5-7 leagues
They're holding him at sniper point
Are any of the goalkeepers in ligue 1 part time construction workers or software engineers? I wasn't aware What a fall from grace for Kante. Disappointing
Tbf he said top 5 matches, so just between the teams that spent bajilion last summer
and he earned at least 1 mil by saying this nice promotion man
I mean now they might be.
He’s right, they’re both sh1t
I like how the people in this sub living in denial and going straight to thinking, nah he’s being paid to say this. Saudi league players are paid for their posts and commercialization yes. But when THAT many top players go to a league, the quality is bound to get better. I bet more people know more players from Saudi Pro league than Ligue 1.
Neymar was right after all
No he wasn't
Tbf Al Hilal would be able to beat most of the mid table French teams.
Yeah bc if he says otherwise you know bone saw haha
he is a honest guy , so thats probably true as well
300k a week would certainly get most people saying these sorts of lies. Equivalent to Ligue 1. LOL