Football has changed over the years. And the biggest shift in modern football is happening off the pitch. With Cristiano’s move to Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr, many big-name stars in the sport and many upcoming stars as well, have started making “money” moves over “passion” moves. This has been an ongoing trend for the past couple of seasons now with more and more stars playing in the top 5 Leagues making a switch to Saudi clubs. This evidently hasn’t gone down well with Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman, who had some harsh words for his own player after that player chose to move to Saudi Arabia and play for Al Ittihad.
What’s a “Money” move in football?
While there is no such official term used in the sport, it is a tag that is very widely used in casual football conversations to denote a player’s move to a club when the main motivation behind the move is for the money and profits rather than the sporting project. This can be better explained through examples.
Money Move examples in Football
1. Ivan Toney
For example, Ivan Toney, the English striker recently made a move to the Saudi side Al-Ahli. This was when he had offers from top European clubs including Chelsea who are in the middle of a rebranding of sorts and have a very promising young squad and sporting project. Still, the 28-year-old who was in his physical prime, chose to go to the Saudi Pro League. Why? Well, because Al-Ahli was offering him a $400K per week contract. That’s crazy money! And it’s safe to say Ivan Toney chose money over his passion for fighting for the most revered club trophies, etc.
2. Ruben Neves
2 seasons back, Ruben Neves was a tidy and efficient 25-year-old defensive midfielder with many top European Clubs, including the likes of Barcelona, and Liverpool looking for opportunities to sign him. But the Money that Saudi Arabian clubs had to offer tempted him to leave Europe and ply his trade for the Saudi Pro League side, Al-Hilal. Currently, he is still one of the finest in his position, but will soon be sided out of the Portuguese team by Palhinha, the Bayern Munich defensive midfielder who chose to join a top European side this summer and chose passion over money, unlike his fellow Portuguese.
How Bergwijn’s Money move to Saudi Arabia has created a Civil War
Following the footsteps of many before him, Steven Bergwijn, the former Ajax and Spurs player made the move to Saudi Arabia and received massive public criticism from his national team manager, Ronald Koeman. “The book is basically closed to him. He knows what I think about this,” said Koeman. The former Barcelona Legend further added, “When you are 26, your main ambition should be sporting, not financial. These are choices that players make. He could have stayed at Ajax, that’s not bad, is it?”
Bergwijn was one of Ajax’s best players last season as he created 50+ Chances, and completed the most dribbles in the team also scoring 12 times in 24 Eredivisie games. He also represented the Netherlands at the Euros and started 2 games for the Dutch, who were infamously denied 3 points at the Euros against France. Yet, it seems that Koeman is willing to stay loyal to his words as Bergwijn wasn’t called up for the recent Nations League fixtures.
Since then, Steven Bergwijn has responded to his coach’s words over his supposed money move. Bergwijn said, “I am done with someone who deliberately portrays me like that in the media. That’s not how you treat your own players. The national coach knows very well that the competition in Saudi Arabia is at a great level.”
Well, it seems that tempers are flaring in the Dutch national setup after this breakout between players and managers. But this situation begs the question, have footballers started prioritizing money over passion? What are your views on this? Let us know in the comments below.
