Al-Hilal have riches on and off the field – and an outside shot at the Club World Cup

New York Times

6 hours ago

Flashing around the pitch at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami was advertising for a sponsor FIFA partnered with only at the beginning of June. 'Invested in better' circled the Real Madrid and Al-Hilal players on a hot and humid afternoon in Miami Gardens. It is the mission statement of PIF, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which also paid $1bn for a 10% stake in host broadcaster DAZN back in the spring.
Advertisement
PIF hasn't only put up the money for this tournament — it has provided a team too. Al-Hilal are controlled by PIF, and Wednesday afternoon's game against the most successful club in Europe was a test to see whether the entity really had 'invested in better.'
Al-Hilal are not a start-up club. They were founded in 1957 and have won the Asian Champions League on four occasions. But this is still a start-up team in a start-up competition backed by immense wealth. Regardless of Neymar's return to Brazil in January, the starting XI fielded by Al-Hilal still cost a lavish €350m (about $400m).
Simone Inzaghi, who made his debut in the dugout for the runners-up in last season's Saudi Pro League, has become one of the highest-paid coaches in the world on a reported €25m a year. Teams put together like this can be unbalanced and disinterested, with little in the way of collective ethos. Inzaghi also had next to no time to bring them together— after all, the Champions League final lost by his Inter team 5–0 was only two and a half weeks ago.
Depicted by some as on the rebound, others thought his focus was maybe on Al-Hilal too soon, his head turned by the chance to more than double his wages. Earlier this week, Al-Hilal's CEO Esteve Calzada clarified that Inzaghi had not signed before Inter played PSG in Munich. But a deal was already agreed with his agents — one of whom was Inzaghi's son, Tommaso — and that it wasn't something that 'came quickly.'
This left Inzaghi exposed. 'Everyone knows what he did,' Inter president Beppe Marotta told DAZN before their Club World Cup opener against Monterrey. As was the case with Roberto Mancini, who left the Italy job for the Saudi one, Inzaghi has had to reckon with a backlash back home.
'If this is the price I have to pay for my four years at Inter, I'm happy to pay it,' he said. Inzaghi, after all, can now afford to — although the compensation he had in mind when making that comment was the well wishes of his former players, and friends and family.
Advertisement
While there was some scoffing at Inzaghi's stated claim of always wanting to work abroad — why the Saudi Pro League then, and not the Premier League or La Liga? — it isn't hard to see why the calibre of player at Al-Hilal made the project appealing in conjunction with the chance to make an amount of money that's transformational even for a former Serie A player who coached one of the biggest clubs in Italy.
Bono, the goalkeeper, was one of the stars of the World Cup in Qatar, a double Europa League winner who once collected the Zamora Trophy in Spain. Kalidou Koulibaly was considered the best centre-back in Serie A during his time with Napoli. Joao Cancelo and Renan Lodi are used to playing against Real Madrid from their time at Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.
Taking the Al-Hilal job also meant Inzaghi was reunited with Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, one of the principal difference-makers in a Lazio team that won three trophies and made a title tilt during COVID under his management. Marcos Leonardo was the next big thing out of Santos when Benfica edged the likes of Roma to his signature and was covering for top scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic, who joined for €55m from Fulham.
Inzaghi is unfamiliar with this level of largesse. Lazio are famously frugal under president Claudio Lotito and much was made of how his Inter teams were put together on the cheap with players like Andre Onana, Marcus Thuram, Stefan de Vrij, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and Hakan Calhanoglu all arriving at different stages on free transfers.
While the football reasons for leaving Inter for Al-Hilal make little sense when comparing a top European league with the Saudi Pro League, it is perhaps worth thinking about Inzaghi's choice in the context of whether the Club World Cup might be held every two years rather than four.
Advertisement
That is, of course, if he sticks around longer than Mancini — who left after 14 months, expressing regret he ever took the Saudi job — and Stefano Pioli, who looks set to return to Fiorentina after a season with Al-Nassr.
It's early days, but, focusing on the present, Al-Hilal already look the most credible contender from outside of Europe to unlock Gianni Infantino's golden trophy. Many teams spend vast amounts of money without it translating into competitiveness. Neymar aside, Al-Hilal's transfer targets have, creditably, hit and do look part of a coherent strategy.
'No, I'm not surprised because I've seen many of their games,' Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso said. 'Today was the first game with the new coach, but they have players who have played in the top leagues.'
Inzaghi called the 1–1 draw 'a great start.' He betrayed little in the way of trepidation. The training sessions of the past few days had filled him with confidence. Al-Hilal's first attack was straight out of the Lazio playbook: a long ball from the back for Milinkovic to win, a near guarantee of beating the press and turning opponents on their heels. Lodi and Salem took advantage of Rodrygo's intermittence in covering for Trent Alexander-Arnold on his tentative debut.
Alonso also admitted 'it wasn't quite clear' how Al-Hilal would play. Inzaghi adapted to his new team, playing a back four rather than imposing the three-man defences he was famous for at Lazio and Inter.
Much of the curiosity in the opening week of the Club World Cup has been on whether or not the South American teams can take it to their European counterparts. This is, in part, explained by the institutional memory of the competition's forerunner — the Intercontinental Cup — and the legendary battles of a bygone era.
But the playing field is no longer as even, the disparity never greater. None of the teams from Argentina, nor those from richer Brazil, have Saudi's money. And while it's still early for Inzaghi and Al-Hilal, and it shouldn't be taken for granted, it perhaps isn't a surprise that they're a contender. People seem to have slept on a PIF team in a PIF-backed tournament having a shot, an outside shot but a shot nonetheless.