Ángel Di María has revealed that he turned down offers from Saudi Arabia.
Di María stated that he refused offers to join a club in Saudi Arabia, preferring to stay in Europe. In an interview with Pollo Alvarez, the Argentine had called Lionel Messi the greatest player of all time over Cristiano Ronaldo.
Revealing in the same interview, the 37 year old stated that after the 2022 World Cup, while he was still at Juventus, he received offers to play in Saudi Arabia. Here is what he had to say:
“The truth is, I received an offer from Saudi Arabia and I said no. Then another offer came, more than double, from the same club. I said no again. That’s when my friend told me, “We need to say something because I’m not sure if they know that you don’t want to go play there.” So I said, “Well, if they give us this (a much higher amount), maybe we’ll go.” And they actually offered that!
“My wife was telling me, “How are they going to give you that, you idiot?” Well, the idiot was right. I threw a crazy number, expecting them to say no, but instead, they said, “Yes, yes, done?” When my friend told me they accepted, I told my wife, “See? I’m not an idiot. We asked, and they met it.” Then we were like, “Now what?” But in the end, we decided to go to Lisbon, to Benfica. I ended up turning it down.
“All of this happened after the World Cup, when I was at Juve, during that time. I think it was a combination of everything. But now, that’s it. If that offer came again, I think I’d pass. I don’t really feel like going to a place like that at the end of my career.”
