Once upon a time in the world of football, clubs in China suddenly came into great wealth and decided to start poaching stars from across Europe to come play in their league. The seemingly endless riches lasted for a few years and things returned to normal but not before players like Chelsea’s Oscar and Didier Drogba made the move to the Far East.
In this era, that role of Asian financial superpower has been taken over by clubs in Saudi Arabia that have spent massive amounts of money to bring in some of the biggest names in football. Cristiano Ronaldo is the biggest of the lot but others like Karim Benzema and N’golo Kante made the move to the Middle East as well.
Now according to The Telegraph, the clubs in Saudi Arabia have turned their focus to another Chelsea star that only arrived at the club a few years ago. The report suggests that Moises Caicedo is the target for Al-Nassr and they could be willing to spend more than £100 million for his services.
Al-Nassr is the club where Ronaldo currently plays, and they recently shocked the football world by spending £70 million on Jhon Duran from Aston Villa. Spending another £100 million on Caicedo is well within their means but they would have to convince Chelsea to sell and the Ecuadorian star to push for a departure.
Cheslea acquired Caicedo from Brighton in 2023 for more than £100 million so selling him for that amount would be more about breaking even than a profit. The club shocked supporters when they sold Conor Gallagher and Lewis Hall but those were moves motivated by turning Academy players into “pure profit” as they were described.
Caicedo has been excellent this season and could very likely win player of the year for his efforts. It would take an insane amount of money to convince Chelsea to sell him and breaking even at £100 million seems unlikely to be enough. The only way we could see this move happening is if Caicedo himself begins pushing for a move away.
We saw Oscar do this for a move to China to chase the generational wealth that came with that transfer. We wouldn’t begrudge Caicedo that life-changing money if he was to go that route but the hope is competing at a top club in Europe for what is also life-changing money will be enough to convince him to stay.
This is definitely a story to keep an eye on to see how aggressive Al-Nassr get with their pursuit of our midfield dynamo.