{"id":287969,"date":"2023-09-08T09:36:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T09:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=287969"},"modified":"2023-09-08T09:36:24","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T09:36:24","slug":"neymar-suggests-saudi-pro-league-might-be-better-than-ligue-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/neymar-suggests-saudi-pro-league-might-be-better-than-ligue-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Neymar suggests Saudi Pro League might be BETTER than Ligue 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Neymar battles back against &#8216;weak&#8217; Saudi Pro League jibes and suggests the division might be BETTER than Ligue 1 following a summer of superstar arrivals<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Neymar believes the Saudi Pro League is emerging as a competitive division<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The Brazilian left European football this summer for a move to the Middle East<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He joined the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema in the nation\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Neymar\u00a0has suggested the Saudi Pro League is a better standard than Ligue 1 and stressed the high-profile names starring in the Middle East has developed newfound competitiveness in the rising division.<\/p>\n<p>The Brazilian became the league&#8217;s marquee summer arrival after leaving Paris Saint-Germain to join Al-Hilal in a \u00a378m deal that saw him cash-in on a career in European football.<\/p>\n<p>Neymar joined esteemed company in Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Sadio Mane, while former Man City star Riyad Mahrez and ex-Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson\u00a0similarly left England for Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking after reporting for international duty with Brazil, Neymar explained the quality of talent in the Saudi top-flight makes it a strong league to compete in.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I assure you that football there is the same. The ball is round, there is a goal. Because of the names that have gone to the Saudi league&#8230; I don&#8217;t know if it is better than the French one,&#8217; said Neymar.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/08\/08\/75202765-12495237-image-a-1_1694158837041.jpg\" height=\"502\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Neymar has hailed the competitiveness of the Saudi Pro League after making his move to the division<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/08\/08\/75202775-12495237-image-a-2_1694158844813.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The Brazilian (left) starred for PSG over six years but suggested the Saudi Pro League is more competitive than playing in France<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The training pace is intense, the thirst to win is great. I want to win titles with Al-Hilal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Nothing changes in my head. People say that the championship is not known, that it is weak&#8230; everyone said that when I went to the French championship and it was the place where I suffered the most in.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s not going to be easy to win the Saudi championship because there are other teams that have gotten stronger, there are well-known players and I&#8217;m sure it&#8217;s going to be a very interesting league and that you&#8217;re going to see it,&#8217; said the Brazilian.<\/p>\n<p>Neymar starred in France for six years after arriving in Paris for a world-record \u00a3198m deal in 2017 from Barcelona and decided to call time on his career in the nation after approaches from Saudi Arabia were made.<\/p>\n<p>He still had four-years left on his contract at PSG but sought a new challenge in the Middle East and signed a two-year deal with Al-Hilal that is understood to be worth \u00a3130million a year.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/08\/09\/75203471-12495237-image-a-18_1694160163721.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Riyad Mahrez was one of the league&#8217;s biggest summer arrivals after leaving Treble-winners Man City for Saudi Arabia<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/08\/08\/75202799-12495237-Neymar_joined_several_big_names_in_the_Saudi_top_flight_that_fea-a-6_1694159174326.jpg\" height=\"431\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Neymar joins several big-names in the Saudi top-flight with Cristiano Ronaldo one of the most high-profile players(right)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/08\/08\/75202767-12495237-image-m-4_1694158887997.jpg\" height=\"513\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The Brazilian is still waiting to make his Al-Hilal debut as he continues to recover from an ankle injury<\/p>\n<p>However, his fresh start in new surroundings has been blighted by injury concerns that also plagued large parts of his PSG career.<\/p>\n<p>The 31-year-old is still waiting to make his debut as he recovers from an ankle injury that has side-lined him for the past six months, but was still selected for the Brazil national team.<\/p>\n<p>But, Al-Hilal have continued to star in his absence with Jorge Jesus&#8217; side top of the league standings and unbeaten in their opening five league games as former Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic continues to impress in attack.<\/p>\n<p>Neymar is expected to be fit to make his Saudi debut soon after admitting he was close to being available before the international break.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12495237\/neymar-saudi-pro-league-psg-al-hilal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Neymar battles back against &#8216;weak&#8217; Saudi Pro League jibes and suggests the division might be BETTER than Ligue 1 following a summer of superstar arrivals <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/neymar-suggests-saudi-pro-league-might-be-better-than-ligue-1\/\" title=\"Neymar suggests Saudi Pro League might be BETTER than Ligue 1\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Neymar suggests Saudi Pro League might be BETTER than Ligue 1 - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/neymar-suggests-saudi-pro-league-might-be-better-than-ligue-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Neymar suggests Saudi Pro League might be BETTER than Ligue 1 - Sportstoft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Neymar battles back against &#8216;weak&#8217; 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