Former FC Braga and current Al-Khaleej forward Fabio Martins has hit out at his fellow Europeans who have criticised players like him for moving to Saudi Arabia.
Martins, who hails from Portugal and has represented the country’s youth sides at all levels, played over 100 games for various clubs in the country. He moved to Saudi Arabia first on loan in 2020 to play for Al-Shabab, before spending one season in the UAE with Al Wahda. He returned to the Saudi Pro League in June 2023, signing for Al-Khaleej. His signing wnt under the radar as a number of high-profile players had made moves to various clubs in Saudi Arabia.
Those signings have been frowned upon by various club presidents in Europe, various players, various managers and even high ranking UEFA officials like president Aleksander Čeferin. Manchester City and Spain midfielder Rodrigo Hernández Cascante, populrly known as Rodri, hammered on these moves during the just concluded Spetember 2023 international break.
The midfielder took a swipe at his contemporaries while asking the football authorities (FIFA and UEFA) to see to it that Saudi Arabai do not sign players as they deem fit. Rodri has understandably gotten a lot of backlash for his comments and Martins is the latest to add his voice.
The 30-year-old forward, who plays alongside his compatriot and the greatest player in Portugal’s history, Cristiano Ronaldo, in the Saudi Pro League, was speaking at the Thinking Football Summit when he downplayed Rodri’s comments.
“I believe that all of us, players or not, work for money,”Martins told journalists when asked about the comments. “You are a journalist and you work for money and I’m sure that if some brand or some [newspaper] came to you to give you more money to change your job, you will change it because all of us want money.
“I believe that people are free to choose what they want for their life. I’m not critical because I’m here too for sure.
“When I arrived here I came 80 per cent because of the money because they pay me much more than in Portugal, so it’s a thing that I don’t understand people judging the others because of his choices.
“We have freedom to choose what we want what we want for our life, and what we want for our career.”
The journalists also brought up comments made by Real Madrid and Germany midfielder Toni Kroos after promising Spanish talent Gabri Veiga made the move to Saudi Arabia.
Veiga, 21, joined Al-Ahli Saudi after a summer which saw some of Europe’s top clubs hustle for his signature. Kroos expressed his disappointment at the move and tagged it “Embarrassing”, leading to uproar. Martins commented on Kroos’ sentiments.
“I understand Kroos because maybe he saw a lot of potential in Veiga, and he was kind of young,” the Al-Khaleej man said. “[But at 21] if he gets one proposal like this, you don’t know if in two, three or four years [that another proposal like this will come].
“I said a lot of times to the people beside me, around me, that in Portugal we say [the train does not stop in the same place twice].
“You get the proposal. You don’t know if the proposal will come again with these numbers, with this money, so we have a time to say yes or say no and we have to make choices.
“I believe that all the players that are here are happy.
“The people around football and out of football, they all change places, they change jobs too because of the money, so I don’t understand this judgement.”
