Skip to content
3 Former Premier League Players You Never Knew Played In Saudi Arabia
The Saudi Pro League may not be one of the biggest in world football, but with its spending power increasing in the aim to become one of the top leagues on the planet.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante are just three names who have recently made the switch to the country, despite warnings from bodies such as FIFPro, but what other players have starred in the league?
Using data from TransferMarkt, we take a look at some of those who have spent time in Saudi Arabia in their careers.
1 Bafetimbi Gomis
Perhaps best known to UK readers for his spell at Swansea City, Bafetimbi Gomis also featured for Saint-Etienne, Troyes, Marseille and most notably, Lyon, in his native France, scoring an impressive number of goals at each club and earning himself 12 caps for the national team a decade ago.
Following his departure from South Wales, Gomis headed off to Turkey and Galatasaray where he found the net 32 times in 40 games, earning that move to Saudi Arabia with Al-Hilal for the start of the 2018/19 campaign. In his three and half years with the club, Gomis left a lasting impression that saw local media hailing him as one of the greatest foreign players of all time to play in Saudi Arabia.
In his 154 games for the club, he scored 116 goals while winning six major honours as Al-Hilal cemented their status as one of the top clubs in the country. Two league titles, a King Cup and Saudi Super Cup crown were added to the honours list, but it was his performances on the continent helping Al-Hilal to their third and fourth AFC Champions League trophy in 2019 and 2021 that put his name into history.
Those titles saw the club become the record winners of the tournament with four wins, one more than Pohang Steelers of South Korea and Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds, the latter of whom defeated Al-Hilal in both the 2017 and 2022 finals. That 2017 defeat to the team from Japan stung the Saudis, but after a Gomis-inspired Al-Hilal fired their way to the final against the same opposition once more two years later, there would be no stopping them this time with the Frenchman scoring the final goal in the second leg, his 11th of the tournament, to ensure a 3-0 aggregate win and the club’s first Champions League since 2000.
Gomis would win it again in 2021 against the Steelers, also securing the second of his two league titles in Saudi Arabia and the aforementioned Super Cup title, before returning to Galatasaray midway through the next season. At the start of June this year, he left the Turkish club once more and remains a free agent ahead of the 2023/24 campaign.
2 Wilfried Bony
Another former Swansea striker, Wilfried Bony also plied his trade in the Saudi Pro League, but unlike Gomis, the Ivorian didn’t quite hit the heights in his brief spell in Asia.
After making the move to Europe in 2007, Bony impressed for both Sparta Prague and Vitesse before earning his move to the Premier League with the Swans where he became a fan favourite in the team that made their mark across the league and in Europe following their League Cup win the season before.
His form in Wales attracted the interest of Manchester City who would sign the striker in 2015, but despite a return of 11 goals in 46 appearances, this would mark the start of Bony’s fall from grace. An unimpressive loan spell at Stoke signalled the end of his City career, returning to Swansea where he failed to hit the heights of his previous spell, again heading out on loan, this time to Al-Arabi in Qatar.
Al-Ittihad signed Bony ahead of the 2019/20 season, where despite only playing ten games, he did find the net five times before cutting short his contract after just ten months in Saudi Arabia as the side finished just three points above the relegation zone.
Since his departure, the former Ivory Coast international spent over a year without a club before returning to the Netherlands with NEC Nijmegen, but his spell there also ended prematurely after injuries limited him to just 40 minutes of action. Most recently, he featured twice for the Bolivian club Always Ready, but left in April.
3 Brad Jones
Born in Australia, goalkeeper Jones began his senior career in England with Middlesbrough at the turn of the century where he spent ten years, making 73 appearances for the Teesside outfit, as well as featuring on loan at Shelbourne, Stockport County, Rotherham, Blackpool and Sheffield Wednesday.
He earned a big-money move to Liverpool in 2010 but played just 27 times in five years for the first team and spent time on loan at Derby County, before heading to Bradford City in 2015 where again he failed to establish himself, leaving after just three months.
A move to NEC Nijmegen in the Netherlands helped him reach the heights he was capable of, impressing enough in his short spell there to attract the attention of giants Feyenoord where he would spend two seasons, winning the Eredivisie and Dutch Cup before making the move to Saudi Arabia.
Al-Nassr was his destination where he took the spot as number one, winning the league in his first season at the club as well as keeping the joint most clean sheets in the competition. The following season he was top of that list as well, this time keeping 12 clean sheets, but a second league title wasn’t to be as the side finished second behind Al-Hilal. Two Saudi Super Cups were also added to Jones’ honours list before departing the state at the end of his contract in 2021.
He headed back to Australia with his hometown club Perth Glory but played just five times before announcing his retirement in May 2023.
