The owner of OL is not the type to keep his tongue in his pocket and his last bloodshed caused a stir. However, the American got a little carried away.
Very active since the start of the transfer window, Saudi Arabia recently attacked OL’s top scorer, Alexandre Lacazette. The captain of Olympique Lyonnais is one of the very last targets of Saudi Arabia, which is winning more and more big European players during this summer transfer window. After having first tackled players at the end of their career such as Cristiano Ronaldo or Karim Benzema, Saudi clubs are now tracking players in the prime of life like Riyad Mahrez, Kalidou Koulibaly and Marcelo Brozovic. One of Saudi Arabia’s latest targets is a Ligue 1 player since the name of Alexandre Lacazette has been mentioned.
❗️ Saudi Arabia is interested in Alexandre Lacazette. The striker did not follow up. At least not at the moment. He feels good in Lyon after a successful season. https://t.co/IHhIRDTTgg
—Fabrice Hawkins (@FabriceHawkins) June 26, 2023
Which did not please the club’s American owner John Textor, annoyed by the interest of the Saudis by the best European players. “The Saudis want everything. They want my best player at Lyon, my best player at Crystal Palace, the best players and my coach at Botafogo. Their strategy is to buy everything” railed the American owner of Olympique Lyonnais. A reaction that amused Thibaud Leplat, who estimated on RMC that John Textor, a compulsive buyer of clubs, was not really credible to criticize Saudi Arabia and its exponential spending.
John Textor complains about Saudi Arabia
“It’s the sprinkler sprinkled dear John, when you do timeshare, you buy clubs one after the other, you can’t then complain that you yourself are a victim of the food chain in which you you are on. It’s a bit like playing big fish getting eaten by a shark. Saudi Arabia is not a rival from a footballing point of view, it is a political, geopolitical rival” informed the journalist in the After Foot, before concluding.
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“I think it just reactivates a fear of the decadence of European football. Before all our great players leave, we still have time, we are not there yet. This call for air to Saudi Arabia will last as long as the call for air to China or the United States lasted at one time, I’m not sure we should be alarmed “ analyzed the journalist, for whom John Textor cannot really complain about the Saudi threat, himself being a compulsive buyer in the world of football. As far as Alexandre Lacazette is concerned, OL and Textor supporters can rest easy since, a priori, the French international will not leave the capital of Gaul this summer.
