New Delhi: As the days go by, slowly and steadily football is returning to every part of the world and Saudi Arabia becomes the latest country where football returns. The Saudi Pro League, home to stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante, and Neymar, returns to action tonight, August 22, 2024. The league kicks off tonight at 21:30 hrs when Al-Taawoun host Al-Feiha in the first league game of the season.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr play later in the night when they face off against Al-Raed at home. At the same time, Karim Benzema’s Al-Ittihad and Neymar’s Al-Hilal play their first game tomorrow against Al-Kholood and Al-Okhdood respectively. Defending champions Al-Hilal will look to defend their crown this season in a bid to stretch their championship wins to 20, extending their record for the most SPL titles for a club.
The SPL was established in 1976 but only gained widespread prominence at the end of 2022 when rumours started swirling around the Al-Nassr trying to sign Ronaldo. The Portuguese winger was a free agent after terminating his contract in November 2022, which led to the Riyadh-based club agreeing to a €200 million per year contract with the Portuguese icon.
Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr drew a lot of eyeballs to the product. This led to the nation’s Public Investment Fund taking 75% of the stake in the four founding members of the league, namely Al-Ahli, Al-Ittihad, Al-Hilal, and Al-Nassr in June 2023 as a part of the Saudi Vision 2030 program.
Defending Champions
Al-Hilal players celebrate at the podium with the trophy during a ceremony with the sports minister Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Saud on May 24, 2024, at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. (Photo by Mohammed Saad/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The league’s most successful team, Al-Hilal were crowned SPL champions for a record-extending 19th time last season and head into the 2024/25 season as defending champions. While everyone’s eyes were on Bayer Leverkusen’s invincible season, Al-Hilal were having an invincible season of their own as they went the entire campaign unbeaten. They finished the 2023/24 SPL season with 31 wins and 3 draws from their 34 games, scoring over 100 goals all season and conceding only 23.
Al-Hilal invested heavily in the transfer market last season and reaped the rewards throughout the campaign. They brought in huge names from Europe like Kalidou Koulibaly, Ruben Neves, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Malcom, Yassine Bounou, Aleksandar Mitrović, Renan Lodi and their crown jewel, Neymar. The former PSG and Barcelona star was expected to be the main man for the side but was injured for most of the season and it was Mitrović who powered them to the title with 28 goals in the league.
Title Contenders for the 2024/25 season
Al-Hilal will look to defend the title this season but will face stiff competition once again from both Al-Nassr and Al-Ahli, who finished second and third last season, respectively. Al-Ittihad finished outside the top four last season but they have been pretty active in the transfer market this year so they could also be looking to challenge and win their 10th SPL title.
Promoted sides for the 2024/25 season
Al-Qadsiah became the first promoted team for the upcoming season and return to the first division of Saudi Arabian football after an absence of three years and will be playing their 37th season in the top flight. Al-Kholood and Al-Orobah became the final two clubs to be promoted. Al-Kholood will play their first season in the Saudi Pro League this year while Al-Orobah return for their third-ever season in the top-flight after being absent in the league for the past nine years.
Schedule for the 2024/25 season
The Saudi Pro League starts at 21:40 hrs on August 22, 2024, and the first matchday ends at 23:30 hrs on August 24, 2024, with a match between Vítor Pereira’s Al-Shabab and Steven Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq. A total of 34 matchdays will be played in the league with the final matchday taking place on May 26, 2025.
Where to watch the 2024/25 season of the Saudi Pro League?
All fans of Cristiano Ronaldo who are interested in seeing their legend play club football can tune into Sony Sports 2 and Sony Sports 5 TV channels in India to catch all the action from the Saudi Pro League. The league will also be streamed on the Sony Liv website and app but users will require a subscription of the same to watch it on either the app or the website as it won’t be available for free.
This will be Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo’s second season in Saudi Arabia. Can he add another league title to his name this season or will he face another heartbreak? Dive in to find out everything about the new season. Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
