Ranking Every Saudi Pro League Club (From Relegation Scrap To Title Contenders) | OneFootball

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There is a lot of attention being drawn towards the Saudi Pro League this summer due to the money being spent on luring top stars to the division, and fans will be looking to learn more about the teams in the league.

Cristiano Ronaldo was the first big name to move to the league in January 2023 after having his Manchester United contract terminated. The presence of CR7 alone brought Saudi Arabia's top-tier division to the forefront of people's minds where it would not have even been an afterthought previously.

Stars such as Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kante and Sadio Mané have since followed the Portuguese forward in jumping ship from Europe to the Middle East. A handful of clubs in the league have benefitted from making these signings and look much stronger after doing so.

Other sides have not flexed the financial muscles to quite the same extant and risk being left behind in the near future by the teams higher up the league. It is expected that the spending is not going to slow down anytime soon with the aim being to make the Saudi Pro League one of the top leagues in the football world.

So, we rank the 18 Saudi Pro League teams as things stand using a Tiermaker. We have split these rankings into 'Title Contenders', 'Close, but not quite', 'Mid-table mediocrity' and 'Relegation scrap' in order to give an idea of where we see each side in the upcoming season.

4 Relegation Scrap

Al-Riyadh

The club have not been near silverware since the 1997/98 season when they finished as the runners-up in the Crown Prince Cup.

They had previously won that trophy back in 1994, but three decades later, and the club look like they will struggle when the new season begins due to the expenditure of rivals in comparison to their own.

Yannick Ferrera has a tough task on his hands to get his side competing with the big teams around them.

Al Wehda

The entire Al Wehda squad is full of names that will be unfamiliar to the majority of football fans across the globe.

They remain one of the teams to have not secured a marquee signing in this window, as their team is full of native players, bar a few exceptions.

Jean-David Beauguel is the most valuable asset in the squad and the forward is going to have an uphill battle on his hands in trying to help his team avoid finishing at the bottom of the table.

Al-Fayha

While they have some history of winning honours such as the King Cup, Saudi First Division and Saudi Second Division, Al-Fayha are expected to be towards the bottom of the table in the Pro League next season.

Again due to the lack of finances in comparison to others around them, it is understandable there will be some struggles. During the aforementioned King Cup success, they beat teams such as Al Ittihad and Al Hilal in an impressive run to securing the trophy.

This shows there is a potential to be competitive in one-off games, but the difference in money spent will have alarm bells ringing.

Al Akhdoud

Newly promoted side, Al Akhdoud, will be heading into the new season with confidence after finishing last season with seven wins from the last 10 fixtures.

Avoiding relegation would be a success for the club and will be the main aim as they embark upon their Pro League journey. They will be spending the entire campaign battling with the sides in and around them in the league to keep out of the drop zone.

A trip to Al Shabab in the opening game of the season will be a tough way to kick off the season.

Damac FC

Damac have kicked off their pre-season with two wins and a loss in their friendly games so far which sums up the way their season is expected to go.

A 1-0 win over Abha was the only victory the club could manage in their final five fixtures of the 2022/23 season. While they are not expected to drop out of the Pro League, it will still be a tough campaign for the side.

3 Mid-Table Mediocrity

Al-Khaleej

Picking up 4 wins from seven games was not a bad way to round off the season last time out, and to follow that up with an unbeaten pre-season is even more impressive.

Al-Khaleej head into the new season with confidence on their side, although they did only just finish above the relegation zone in the 2023/24 season. There have been 9 new signings made meaning it could take a little bit of time to allow the team to gel in the opening weeks of the campaign.

Abha

Abha steered five points clear of relegation last season and will be looking to build on this and be more comfortable this time round.

Their first game sees the visit of Al Hilal with all of their new big money signings, signalling a difficult opening to the new season.

Fans of the European game will be familiar with new signing, Grzegorz Krychowiak, from his spells with PSG, Sevilla and even West Brom.

The Polish midfielder is a solid addition to a team that struggled at the end of last season.

Al-Hazem

After finishing second in Division one, Al-Hazem have made their way into the Pro League where they will face the only side to finish above them - Al Ahli - in the first game.

An impressive 68 points with a total of 20 wins was enough to fight off competition from Al-Riyadh and Al Akhdoud.

The financial situation is not as promising as other sides in the division with the loan and free agent markets being used a lot in the summer so far.

Al-Raed are expected to have a similar season to last, in which they finished in 10th position.

Areas of improvement that can be explored include goals conceded and turning some draws into wins, although finishing in a very close cluster in mid-table is not a bad thing to aspire to again.

Despite losing the final five games of their season, Al Taee finished just above Al-Raed with the same points and goal difference.

They did achieve more wins than their close rivals over the course of the campaign.

The recent history of the club shows very little in the way of silverware, but there have been some league wins in the lower divisions.

A mid-table finish is the best case scenario as they look to avoid dropping back down the leagues.

2 Close, but not quite

Al Ettifaq

Steven Gerrard has recruited his former Liverpool teammate, Jordan Henderson, to help cement his vision for the team going forward.

A familiar face on his side is likely to help the boss settle quicker and look to make an impression on the league.

Scotland defender Jack Hendry and former Celtic striker Moussa Dembele have joined Henderson at the club this summer.

Al Ettifaq have had more funds to work with than the clubs below them, while also not having quite as much as the sides above.

Al-Fateh

The side to finish above Al Ettifaq in the last campaign, they will be hoping to do so again even despite their rivals' new recruits.

Former Manchester City defender, Jason Denayer, moved to the club on a free transfer in order to help shore up the defence with Christian Tello having already signed in January for attacking options.

The manager is a familiar name for Premier League fans as former West Ham boss Slaven Bilic took the reigns following his departure from Watford.

Al-Taawon

It is impressive that the side made up of almost all native players managed a fifth place finish last season and will be hoping for a similar result this time.

An awful pre-season has seen three defeats on the spin for Al-Taawon despite winning their last six league games of the previous season, including a win over the eventual champions.

Al Shabab

They would have broken into the top three if it was not for an awful run at the end of the season.

Al Shabab have a smaller squad than the rest of the league and Ever Banega continues to be the man at the middle of their impressive standing in the division.

It will be difficult to close the gap to the top three with all the money they are spending, with others possibly overtaking them also.

Al Ahli

A front three of Roberto Firmino, Riyad Mahrez and Allan Saint-Maximin would be a frightening prospect for defenders in the Premier League and Champions League.

The fact that the three silky dribblers will be lining up alongside eachother for Al Ahli mean that the newly promoted side will look to jump ahead of the majority of their competition.

Edouard Mendy won the Champions League only two years ago with Chelsea and will be the man between the posts for the upcoming campaign.

Last seasons runners-up have built a star-studded squad with some huge names moving from Europe to try and help the side go one better.

Seko Fofana, Marcelo Brozovic, Anderson Talisca, Mane and Ronaldo are players that have all enjoyed success in Europe before moving to the Middle East.

Ronaldo in particular drew a lot of attention to not only the club, but the entire league before the other big names followed him there.

Al Hilal

The most decorated side in the entire continent of Asia will be hoping all the money they have spent this summer will lead to a return to the top of the table.

66 official trophies is no mean feat and the incoming players will have their sights set on increasing this number.

Kalidou Koulibaly, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Ruben Neves are the big names to have joined alongside Brazilian winger, Malcolm.

Al Ittihad

The current champions have only gone and strengthened their ranks during the transfer window as they have brought in the Ballon d'Or holder, Benzema, from Real Madrid.

N'Golo Kante and Fabinho will patrol the middle of the park as they moved from Chelsea and Liverpool respectively.