Ronaldo's bold words lead to controversy! Saudi Super VS MLS who is stronger Messi chooses to lie flat for retirement?
After Riyadh's 5-0 defeat to Celta, Ronaldo's words caused an uproar: "I'm sure I won't go back to Europe to play, I want to play in Saudi Arabia. United States? And will not go, the Saudi league is much better than the American league. This obviously meant because Messi went to the MLS. So Saudi Premier League vs MLS, which league is stronger?
Rank comparison
National teams have FIFA world rankings and European clubs have UEFA points coefficient rankings, but there is no officially accepted ranking system worldwide. The AFC has a technical points ranking, with Saudi Arabia topping the first place, ahead of Japan's J-League, South Korea's K-League and Qatar's League.
IFFHS has a world league ranking every year, but it is only counted at the end of the year, and the timeliness is low. In January, the sports information agency "Group 21" ranked Saudi Arabia 59th in the world and 29th in the world in the MLS. But such a ranking is also a bit outdated, because the past six months have changed dramatically.
The well-known data provider OPTA also has a world league ranking, with Saudi Arabia at 26th and the MLS at 32nd, six places behind. In the more timely-sensitive "Teamform" club rankings, the MLA ranks 56th and Saudi Arabia ranks 68th.
OPTA also has a World Club Ranking, let's take a look at the ranking of the top ten teams in the Saudi Premier League and MLS.
On the Saudi Premier League, three teams are ranked in the top 200 in the world, including Jeddah United 87th, Riyadh Crescent 122nd and Riyadh Victory 128th – two places below Bournemouth. The remaining 7 teams, 1 in the top 300, 1 in the top 400, and 5 in the 500th-800th.
On the MLS side, there are no top 100 teams, the highest ranking is Philadelphia Union at 210th, but there are 9 teams in the top 500 in the world. And Miami International is only ranked 875th in the world!
To sum up, the strong team advantage of the Saudi Super League is more prominent, and the overall competitiveness of the MLS is more balanced. If only the strong teams on both sides are singled out for PK, then the Saudi Premier League is more likely to win. Or rather, it is more difficult to win the championship in Saudi Arabia.
Direct contest
Because they belong to football federations on different continents, Saudi Arabia and MLS teams usually have no chance to compete directly, and theoretically the only chance is the Club World Cup.
As the number one giant in the Saudi League, Riyadh Crescent has participated in the Club World Cup three times, finished fourth twice and advanced to the final last year, eventually finishing second!
However, they never played a MLS team in the Club World Cup, because it was not until last year that the first team from the MLS to play in the Club World Cup, the Seattle Sounders, lost to Cairo Nationals in the second round and reached the quarterfinals.
It can be seen that before the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, at the level of top teams, the Saudi Super League should be stronger than the MLS.
Star PK
From the perspective of value, the total value of the 18 Saudi Super 18 teams is 461 million euros, with an average of 25.6 million, and the total value of the 29 teams of the MLS is 1.24 billion euros, with an average of 42.75 million teams, but compared with the number and popularity of the head stars, the former is still better.
This summer, the Saudi league frantically poached from the giants of Europe's five major leagues, Riyadh successfully signed Inter's Brozovic, Riyadh Crescent brought in Neves, Milinkovic, Kulibaly, Jeddah combined to get Benzema, Ngoro Kante and Joao Jota, Jeddah National signed Roberto Firmino and Edouard Mendy.
In short, the four giants of Saudi Arabia have at least two or three world-class stars, and with strong financial resources, this has become the first place for European club stars to leave Europe, and I believe that there will be more giants joining Saudi Arabia in the future, such as Mane, Mahrez, Henderson and Fabinho, Lukaku, Telles and so on.
Messi and Busquets have landed in the MLS, and Alba is also close behind, but overall, the star flavor of the MLS is still much worse than that of Saudi Arabia. Insigne, Bernardeschi, Shaqiri, Bentek, Puji, Wanyama, Thiago Almeida, Little Pea is relatively famous, but whether it is competitive status or quack status, it cannot catch up with Benzema, Kante, Ronaldo, Firmino.
Future development
The advantage of Saudi Super League is that football development is an important part of Saudi Arabia's "Vision 2030" strategy, with strong support from the state and huge investment in real money, which is also the essential difference between them and the Chinese Super League, so there is no need to worry about the bubble suddenly bursting.
The development of MLS relies on commercial capital, and entertainment and making money are the first purpose, so there will be divisions, playoffs, no relegation, which is a rare model of professional football leagues.
Therefore, the future development of the Saudi Super League is indeed more optimistic, of course, Ronaldo said that it will surpass the Turkish Super League and the Eredivisie within a year, and will become the world's top five leagues in the future, which is really not necessary.