Toni Kroos berates players who go to the Saudi Professional League, says they are ruining football.
Real Madrid star Toni Kroos is the latest to criticise players who have moved to the Saudi Professional League amid this wave of heavy investments by the country in football.
The oil-rich nation has taken a keen interest in football in recent times, with the nation’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which had acquired Newcastle United in the Premier League, taking over the big four clubs in the SPL.
This new-found wealth has served as a powerful pull for top players in European leagues to the perceptibly weaker SPL, and Kroos former teammates Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema are among those who have accepted the invitation to play in the Saudi League.
The relationship he has with some of the footballers who have moved to the SPL has not held the German midfielder back, as he has strong words to say.
What Kroos said
The former Bayern Munich star believes that the players who go to the Saudi League only go there for money and not for football.
He believes that the exodus to the Gulf is ruining football as it is and that he will never go to play football there because of Saudi Arabia’s anti-human rights allegations.
“They go for money. It goes against football,” he said, per Albert Ortega.
“Things are getting difficult for the football we all know and love. I would never go to Saudi Arabia because of the lack of human rights.”
