If nothing goes wrong, Mateo Retegui will become an Al-Qadsiah player this week. The Saudi Arabian club will pay Atalanta between 65 and 70 million euros to sign the top scorer of the last Serie A season. The 26-year-old will see his salary increase by a factor of six to €20 million.
Although the deal has not yet been made official, it is unofficial, with Fabrizio Romano announcing the transfer with his famous ‘Here We Go’. In one of the most unexpected moves of the summer, Serie A’s top scorer Mateo Retegui will leave Atalanta at the age of 26… for Saudi Arabia.
The Arab money has managed to seduce the Italian international, who will be heading to Al-Qadsiah in the next few days after having already passed (according to the latest information) the medical examination with his new club. The transfer will be completed for an exorbitant sum for the Bergamo club, who will receive between 65 and 70 million euros, and also for the player himself.
According to ‘Sportitalia’, Retegui will sign for the Saudi League side for four seasons, receiving a salary of 20 million euros for each of them. An astronomical salary that Fabrizio Romano had already predicted (without saying any figures), and who suggested that the striker would see a six-fold increase in his current salary.
In this way, European football loses one of its great strikers for the 2024-25 season to the threatening and booming Saudi League, whose economic proposals are practically unbeatable for any club in Europe as they are largely off the market.
Retegui will be joined at the Saudi club by old acquaintances from European football, as the Belgian Koen Casteels (former Hoffenheim and Wolfsburg), the Spaniard Nacho (Real Madrid) or the Gabonese Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (with past spells at Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcelona or Borussia Dortmund) also play for the team managed by Michel.