Al-Qadsiah Club, owned by “Aramco”, signs 10 players for 49 million euros

Al-Qadsiah Club (owned by Saudi Aramco) has begun to support its ranks after its promotion to the Roshn Professional League in preparation for the new sports season 2024-2025, by signing 10 local and foreign players for a total value of about 49.5 million euros. The spending on the deals focused on 5 contracts, while the other contracts came for free, with the players’ contracts with their previous clubs ending. It is expected that Al-Qadsiah will sign new players, to complete the quota of foreign professionals in the team. The latest signings of the Yelo First Division League champions were with Argentine player Ezequiel Fernandez on a 5-year contract worth 18.7 million euros, coming from Boca Juniors of Argentina, in a contract that is considered the most expensive in the club’s history. Al-Qadsiah also signed Mexican player Julian Quinones for about 13.8 million euros for 4 years, coming from Club America of Mexico, with estimates that the player will receive 3 million euros in annual salary, and Gabonese Aubameyang from Marseille of France for two years for 9 million euros, according to Transfermarkt, in addition to signing local players Ali Hazazi for an estimated value of 5.49 million euros coming from Al-Ettifaq, and Mohammed Qasim for about 2.4 million euros coming from Al-Nasr. Among the free deals, Al-Qadsiah signed with the Spanish defender Nacho, who recently won the European Nations Cup with his country’s national team. The player’s contract with Al-Qadsiah extends for two years, and he receives 7 million euros per year, in addition to signing with the Uruguayan Nahitan Nandez from the Italian club Cagliari on a free transfer, whose annual salary was reported to be between 4.5 million euros and 10 million euros, in addition to signing with the Belgian goalkeeper Koen Casteels, the former goalkeeper of the German club Wolfsburg, with an annual salary of about 10 million euros for 3 seasons, and Hussein Al-Qahtani from Al-Shabab Club, and Qassim Lajami from Al-Fateh Club. The market value of Al-Qadsiah Club increased by 422% to reach 51.58 million euros at the present time, compared to about 10 million euros at the beginning of last July. In a previous statement about the transfer of ownership of Al-Qadsiah Club to Aramco in July 2023, Nabil Al-Jamea, Executive Vice President of Human Resources and Support Services, explained that Saudi Aramco has always been at the forefront of supporters of sports and society, and this continues in this vital project that comes within the framework of joint work with the Ministry of Sports to transfer ownership of Al-Qadsiah Sports Club to it, which has always been present in the minds of Saudi Aramco employees, as the historical relationship that binds them to it extends back nine decades. The company’s employees played a prominent role in establishing the club in 1935, and this role continued with its development journey, as it went through several names and mergers with other clubs until 1967 witnessed the birth of Al-Qadsiah Club, whose first president was Ali Al-Balushi, one of the veteran employees of Saudi Aramco who is currently retired. Al-Jami added, “Among the fond memories between the club and the company is the goalkeeper of Al-Qadsiah in 1968, who was later destined to become a faithful guardian of Saudi Aramco’s goals, plans and policies, namely Abdullah Jumah, who later became the President and Chief Executive Officer of Saudi Aramco from 1995 to 2008. We also remember the Saudi Aramco employee and former captain of Al-Qadsiah Club, Mohammed Al-Farhan, who carried the Crown Prince Cup with joy and pride, to reach this day in which we crown our historical relationship with the club with this announcement.” It is noteworthy that Saudi Aramco announced at the end of last July the start of work on the construction of the “Aramco Stadium” with a capacity of approximately 47,000 seats in the city of Khobar, to become the main stadium for the Qadisiyah Club owned by Saudi Aramco. Work on the new stadium is expected to be completed by 2026, and it will also be one of the main headquarters for the Asian Cup events hosted by the Kingdom in 2027.

Qadisiyah is among the clubs whose ownership was transferred in the investment and privatization project, along with (Al-Hilal, Al-Nasr, Al-Ahly, and Al-Ittihad), in which the Public Investment Fund owns 75%, in addition to the Diriyah Club, whose ownership was transferred to the Diriyah Company, and Al-Ula, owned by the Royal Commission for the Governor of Al-Ula, and NEOM (formerly Al-Suqoor), owned by NEOM. Earlier this month, 6 sports clubs were offered for privatization to local and international investors, namely: (Al-Zulfi, Al-Nahda, Al-Akhdoud, Al-Ansar, Al-Orouba, and Al-Kholod), as part of the second phase of the second track in the investment and privatization project for sports clubs, to be followed by the completion of the offering of the remaining 8 clubs successively, namely: (Al-Najma, Al-Taraji, Al-Sahel, Hajr, Al-Rawdah, Al-Sha’la, Jeddah, and Riyadh). The transfer and privatization of clubs aims to achieve qualitative leaps in various sports in the Kingdom by 2030, to create a distinguished sports generation, in addition to developing the game of football in particular, to bring the Saudi League to the list of the top 10 leagues in the world, and raise the revenues of the Saudi Professional League from 450 million riyals to more than 1.8 billion riyals annually, in addition to raising the market value of the Saudi Professional League from 3 billion to more than 8 billion riyals.