Sami Al-Jaber, the Al-Hilal and Saudi national team legend, has launched an attack on soaring player prices in the transfer market. Saudi clubs, he argued, have become a clear target for agents and European clubs chasing the biggest possible profit on their sales.
Speaking on the "Nadeena" programme, Al-Jaber said agents, intermediaries and foreign media had wildly inflated players' market values, cashing in on the huge spending power Roshn League clubs have built up in recent years.
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"The agents, the intermediaries and the foreign newspapers are the reason behind the rise in player prices, and Saudi league clubs have become a major target for stars and European teams in order to make money," he added, stressing that current fees have, in some cases, drifted far from a player's true technical worth.
Al-Jaber criticises the Summerville deal
One deal drew his fire directly: the signing of Dutchman Crysencio Summerville. The Al-Hilal legend rates the player's potential and believes he could become an important asset down the line, but the money paid to prise him from West Ham struck him as excessive.
"The current prices are extremely illogical. Summerville is not worth 65 million euros. He is an excellent player with a future, but the figure that was paid for him is a huge sum," Al-Jaber said, insisting that a player's technical rating must stay separate from the prices clubs slap on him in the market.
Al-Hilal, though, are far from alone. In Al-Jaber's view, the entire Saudi league now overpays for players, with the value of deals climbing sharply compared with a few years ago.
A warning about mercato bills
Keep this policy up, Al-Jaber warned, and Saudi clubs will face far bigger challenges ahead. Paying enormous sums raises the ceiling of European clubs' expectations towards the Saudi market and makes future signings harder to complete on a financial level.
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He signed off with a blunt verdict: "Al-Hilal and other clubs are paying enormous sums of money, and this will create great difficulty in the future when it comes to attracting stars." Current prices, he warned, could over time harden into a new benchmark that Saudi clubs struggle to reverse.
His words open up a broad debate about how Roshn League clubs should run their transfer business. Competition for stars now hinges not only on technical quality but on the ability to cope with escalating fees while keeping spending sustainable.