For the Saudi Pro League it started with Cristiano Ronaldo, but nobody could have imagined it would end like this.
Neymar, Benzema, Firmino – the procession of superstar football players turning up in the Kingdom has shown no signs of slowing down all summer and more could yet arrive.
Lionel Messi and a handful of others have turned down contracts, looked elsewhere or not been given permission by their clubs to talk to teams in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Pro League 2023-24 Golden Boot
Despite these few missing absences, the Saudi Pro League is well on the way to becoming one of the elite football competitions in the world. Football, as the old adage goes, is a team game. Eleven versus eleven on the field, with 90 minutes, two goals and one ball.
Reputations count for nothing and no amount of state money (four clubs – Al Hilal, Al Ahli, Al Nassr and Al Ittihad – are backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund) will guarantee success. What’s more, there are high quality Saudi Arabian players and existing footballers who won’t just roll over when new opposition roll into town.
As well as the prestigious Pro League, competition to win the team tournament, individuals will compete for the title of top scorer in the league. Check out the best forwards playing in the Saudi Pro League and hoping to be the Kingdom’s top scorer this season.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Al Nassr
The icon. The legend. The GOAT? Wherever the former Real Madrid and Manchester United star stands in the history of sporting greats, his impact on the Saudi Pro League cannot be underestimated.
His two goals helped Al Nassr to win the Arab Club Championships ahead of the Pro League season and he will be desperate to add personal and team awards to a packed career trophy cabinet.
- Career: 721 goals in 977 games.
- Most prolific season: 61 goals in 54 games for Real Madrid in 2014-2015
Neymar
The Brazilian has appeared in films, as a playable character in Fortnite and countless advertising promotions and memes.
It would be easy to forget he is a prodigiously gifted footballer and goal scorer. The tricks, flicks and showboating showmanship will spread across social media over the course of the season – of that there is little doubt. Will there be end product to go with the displays of skill?
No Brazilian has ever scored more for their country (Neymar is level with Pele) and when PSG bought him from Barcelona he became the most expensive footballer of all time.
- Career: 359 goals in 584 games
- Most prolific season: 43 goals in 47 games for Santos in 2012
Karim Benzema
As the current holder of the Ballon d’Or (the annual prize given to the world’s best player) and looking for a new challenge after 14 years with Real Madrid, Benzema is a strong contender for the Saudi Pro League golden boot.
He joins an Al Ittihad side that won the league last year and has a clear remit – goals.
Defensive reinforcements in the shape of Fabinho and N’Golo Kante behind him will give the Frenchman time to focus on just that.
- Career: 438 goals in 438 games
- Most prolific season: 44 goals in 46 games for Real Madrid in 2021-2022
Roberto Firmino
Liverpool’s beloved Brazilian never stops. He never stops running, he never stops scoring and, somehow, he never stops smiling as he does so.
Part of a Liverpool team that won Premier League, Champions League and domestic cup honours, Firmino was the key to much of the success, both as a reliable frontman in his own right, but also as a creator for others.
Any doubts that he relies on more prolific teammates were dispelled with a debut hat-trick in the Saudi Pro League.
- Career: 171 goals in 554 games
- Most prolific season: 27 goals in 54 games for Liverpool in 2017-2018
Sadio Mane
A two-time African Footballer of the Year and winner of pretty much every trophy going while at Liverpool, Sadio Mane never settled in the Bayern Munich team.
A quick exit from Germany and still young and talented enough to succeed anywhere in the world, his acquisition will lighten the burden on Cristiano Ronaldo at Al Nassr.
A debut goal, electric pace and a willingness to run for the team will endear Mane to fans at the Riyadh-based side.
- Career: 207 goals in 509 games
- Most prolific season: 26 goals in 50 games for Liverpool in 2018-2019
Aleksander Mitrovic
The former Fulham striker doesn’t have the groaning trophy cabinet and Champions League-winning credentials of other players in this list. As a recent addition to the league, he doesn’t have the weight of expectations, superstar baggage or social media clout, either.
What he does have, however, is a towering 189cm frame and a head for goal that terrorises defenders. Despite never reaching the heights of Premier League stardom, Al Hilal’s new front man bagged more than 40 goals in England’s second tier and that could be a better comparison for Saudi Pro League players for the time being.
Neymar garnered more headlines and will doubtless have a prettier highlights reel come the end of the season, but don’t be surprised if the Serbian has more goals.
- Career: 197 goals in 436 games
- Most prolific season: 43 goals in 46 games for Fulham in 2021-2028
Abderrazak Hamdallah
The Moroccan centre forward does not have the European league pedigree of many others, but nobody knows more about scoring goals in this league than Abderrazak Hamdallah. Top scorer last season as well as in 2019 and 2020 the Al Ittihad front man won’t be intimidated by the influx of superstars.
In 2019, while playing for Al Nassr, he was the highest scorer in the world with 50 goals for club and country. You don’t get to top a table including Robert Lewandowski and Lionel Messi without an eye for goal.
He may be sharing a front-line with serial Champions League winner Karim Benzema, but may well consider himself the senior strike partner having scored consistently in Saudi Arabia for five straight years.
- Career: 289 goals in 353 games
- Most prolific season: 52 goals in 35 games for Al Nassr in 2018-2019
Moussa Dembélé
Once one of the hottest prospects in European football, the former Celtic and Fulham centre forward didn’t quite reach the heights expected of a starlet who represented France more than 50 times at junior level.
Expectation won’t be as high for the Steven Gerrard-managed Al Ettifaq as it is for the more glamorous PIF-backed clubs, which may work in Dembélé’s favour.
At just 27 he is still young enough to either play his way back into the French national side and force a move back to the European elite or establish a legacy in the Saudi Pro League that lasts into the next decade a lot depends on hitting the ground running in the 2023-2024 season.
- Career: 141 goals in 338 games
- Most prolific season: 32 goals in 49 games for Celtic in 2016-2017
Odion Ighalo
The well-travelled Nigerian centre forward is on his third team in Saudi Arabia in three years and turned out for teams in Italy, Spain, Norway, China and even a spell in England for Manchester United before arriving in the Kingdom.
With the exception of his time in Manchester, Ighalo has scored everywhere he has played.
52 goals in only 72 goals so far in Saudi Arabia show he has the measure of the league. Having left Al Hilal for an expected move for Lionel Messi that never transpired, he looks like a shrewd signing for Al Wehba who will fly under the radar of worldwide fans, but could cause problems for visitors.
- Career: 209 goals in 465 games
- Most prolific season: 26 goals in 38 games for Al Hilal in 2012-2023
Best of the rest
The Saudi Pro League was not invented in the summer of 2023. Well-established players with history in the league will continue to score goals, threaten defenders and aim to show their highly paid colleagues that they can influence the league as more than bit-part players.
Brazilian international Anderson Talisca continued to outperform Cristiano Ronaldo for Al Nassr after the former Man Utd man joined him in attack midway through last season. Along with Sadio Mane and Ronaldo he will be a key attacking asset.
Firas Al-Buraikan is a local favourite and the top-scoring Saudi international in the Pro League last season. He will be eager to show decorated imports of the quality of homegrown players.
Other incoming players include attacking midfielders such as Jota, Malcolm, Riyad Mahrez, Allan Saint-Maximin and Cristian Tello will also excite and contribute goals and assists this season
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