In late 2022, Cristiano Ronaldo left Manchester United by mutual consent and joined Al Nassr in Riyadh. At the time it looked like a highly paid retirement tour for a 37-year-old superstar. Within a year, the Saudi Pro League had signed Neymar, Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante, and dozens more established internationals, backed by state money on a scale European football had never had to compete with before.
Key Takeaways
- The Saudi Pro League, renamed in 2008, transformed almost overnight after Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Al Nassr.
- In June 2023, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund acquired a 75 percent stake in each of Al Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ittihad, and Al Ahli.
- Saudi Arabia was confirmed as host of the 2034 World Cup in an uncontested FIFA vote in December 2024.
- By 2026, the spending strategy had shifted from ageing superstars toward younger players with resale value, and PIF began selling down some of its club stakes.
- The league’s wage spending forced European clubs to rethink what it takes to keep hold of players in their thirties.
From Regional League to Global Disruptor
The league dates back to 1957 and took the name Saudi Pro League in 2008, playing a fairly ordinary domestic role in Gulf football for most of its history. That changed in June 2023, when the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, acquired a 75 percent stake in each of Al Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ittihad, and Al Ahli.
That single decision turned four separate transfer budgets into one coordinated recruitment strategy, and the league went shopping accordingly. Ronaldo’s arrival had already put Saudi football on the map. The PIF takeover gave it the financial firepower to follow through.
The Spending That Broke the Market
Neymar moved to Al Hilal from Paris Saint-Germain in 2023 in one of the most expensive deals of that summer. Spending of that scale was not matched by European clubs, and his time in Saudi Arabia was disrupted by injury.
Karim Benzema’s switch to Al Ittihad, N’Golo Kante’s move to the same club, and a wave of Premier League and Serie A regulars following them turned the 2023 summer transfer window into a genuine market disruption. Wages that no European club would consider paying for players in their late twenties and thirties suddenly became normal in Riyadh and Jeddah.
The effect rippled outward. European clubs found themselves negotiating contract extensions and transfer fees against a benchmark that had not existed twelve months earlier, and players approaching the back end of their careers gained genuine leverage they had never had before, simply because a credible alternative destination now existed.
A World Cup Is Coming
The spending was never just about football. Saudi Arabia was confirmed as host of the 2034 World Cup in an uncontested FIFA vote in December 2024, part of a broader Vision 2030 strategy to use sport as a tool for economic diversification and international visibility. A competitive, star-studded domestic league fits neatly alongside stadium construction and infrastructure spending as part of that same pitch.
For Saudi football specifically, hosting the World Cup gives the domestic investment a natural endpoint: a national team and a football culture the country wants visibly strengthened by the time the tournament arrives. A domestic league full of experienced internationals training and playing alongside young Saudi players is, at least in theory, part of how that gap gets closed over the next decade.
The 2025-26 Season in Numbers
Al-Nassr won the 2025-26 title with 86 points, two ahead of Al-Hilal. Wikipedia lists it as their 11th league title, and notes that Al-Nassr won 16 league games in a row at one point. Al-Hilal finished the 34-game season unbeaten, with 25 wins and nine draws, and still came second. The table below uses the final standings published by RSSSF.
| Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Al-Nassr | 34 | 28 | 2 | 4 | 91 | 28 | 86 |
| 2 | Al-Hilal | 34 | 25 | 9 | 0 | 85 | 27 | 84 |
| 3 | Al-Ahli | 34 | 25 | 6 | 3 | 71 | 25 | 81 |
| 4 | Al-Qadsiyah | 34 | 23 | 8 | 3 | 83 | 34 | 77 |
| 5 | Al-Ittihad | 34 | 16 | 7 | 11 | 55 | 48 | 55 |
If you are new to reading tables like this one, our guide to GF, GA and GD explains each column.
Recent Saudi Pro League Champions
| Season | Champions |
|---|---|
| 2021-22 | Al-Hilal |
| 2022-23 | Al-Ittihad |
| 2023-24 | Al-Hilal |
| 2024-25 | Al-Ittihad |
| 2025-26 | Al-Nassr |
How the League Works
The Saudi Pro League has 18 clubs, and each plays 34 matches. The bottom clubs are relegated to the First Division, and the top clubs qualify for the AFC Champions League Elite, which in 2026-27 includes Al-Nassr, Al-Hilal, Al-Qadsiyah, Al-Ahli and Al-Ittihad, according to Wikipedia’s season page.
Saudi Pro League Questions Fans Ask
Who won the Saudi Pro League in 2025-26?
Al-Nassr, with 86 points from 34 matches.
How many teams are in the Saudi Pro League?
Eighteen, with each club playing the others home and away.
How does Saudi football compare with other leagues?
For another league with a long history and a strong continental record, see our guide to the Egyptian Premier League. For Asia’s other major league, read about the J1 League. The player who started the Saudi boom is also profiled in our piece on Cristiano Ronaldo’s sixth World Cup.
The League After the Spending Spree
By 2026, the strategy had already started shifting. Rather than continuing to chase the biggest available names, clubs began targeting younger players with genuine resale value, and PIF started reducing some of its direct club holdings, including selling a 70 percent stake in Al Hilal in April 2026, according to AP via Fox Sports. Al Hilal also hired Richard Hughes, who left Liverpool, as sporting director in September. In August 2026 Ronaldo said, “This is probably my last year in football,” according to AP via WTOP, which would remove the one signing that started all of this in the first place.
That shift looks less like retreat and more like a league growing up. The first wave of signings bought attention. What comes next has to build something that lasts past any single player’s contract, a genuinely competitive domestic product with its own identity rather than a retirement circuit for European stars.
None of that walks back what already happened. The Saudi Pro League forced European football to treat Gulf money as a genuine competitor for players rather than a novelty, and with a home World Cup on the calendar, the league has every incentive to keep building rather than retreat.
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