Some of football’s biggest names are revealing themselves to be shameless mercenaries on a scale that is staggering even by the sport’s abysmally low standards. Karim Benzema, the Real Madrid striker, is the latest superstar to answer the siren calls of one last big pay day plying his waning talents in Saudi Arabia. Benzema will receive a reported £86 million a season playing for the Saudi champions, Al-Ittihad. He will play in front of an average home crowd of just 30,000 supporters.
Benzema joins his former Madrid teammate Cristiano Ronaldo who earns a reported £175 million a season playing for rival Saudi club, Al-Nassr. All eyes now turn to Lionel Messi and whether he too will take the Saudi shilling. He is apparently mulling an offer to play for Al-Hilal in a deal worth some £450 million over two years. It is a statement of the blindingly obvious to suggest that these staggering sums make no economic sense.
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