“Benzema is right here. A brand new tiger will roar. Welcome to Ittihad!,” the membership wrote on Twitter.
Benzema will be part of his former Actual Madrid teammate Ronaldo within the Gulf kingdom after the five-time world participant of the yr moved to Al Nassr from Manchester United following final yr’s World Cup.
Lionel Messi, who’s leaving Paris Saint-Germain after two seasons, has additionally been linked with a transfer to Saudi Arabia.
Senior officers from one other Saudi Arabian membership, Al Hilal, have flown to France to attempt to seal a deal for Messi after the 35-year-old Argentinian performed his final recreation for PSG on the weekend, two sources with information of the matter informed AFP on Sunday.
The Saudi delegation plans to fulfill Messi’s father and agent, Jorge, with the aiming of finishing the signing as quickly as potential.
The announcement relating to Benzema comes days after Actual Madrid mentioned that the 35-year-old Benzema was leaving the membership after 14 seasons, the day after coach Carlo Ancelotti had insisted there was “little doubt” Benzema’s future was within the Spanish capital.
Benzema joined Madrid in 2009 from Ligue 1 aspect Lyon.
He made 648 appearances for Madrid and is second on Actual’s all-time goalscoring listing with 354 — solely Ronaldo has extra.
He has lifted 5 Champions Leagues, 4 La Liga titles and three Copas del Rey with Madrid.
However after a stellar 2021-22 season when he led Actual to Champions League glory and was rewarded with the Ballon d’Or, he was troubled by accidents within the just-completed season and needed to miss France’s World Cup marketing campaign in Qatar final yr with a thigh drawback.
Benzema held a goodbye ceremony at Actual’s coaching floor on Tuesday.
“It hurts me, as a result of I had a dream in my head – to signal for Madrid, and end at Madrid,” he informed an viewers of his teammates and membership officers.
“However generally life offers you different alternatives,” he added.
Saudi Arabia has drawn up an inventory of greater than 10 gamers who’ve gained both the Champions League or the World Cup that it needs to lure to its league, a supply near the negotiations has informed AFP.
The listing contains Actual Madrid and Croatia midfielder Luka Modric, Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris and his France teammate N’Golo Kante. All are on the tail-end of their careers.
The world’s greatest oil producer has ambitions to host the World Cup in 2030 or 2034 and is betting on sport to assist revamp its austere picture, which has earned accusations from rights teams that it’s “sportswashing”.
(With inputs from AFP)
