Ten Serie A Players Turned Down Saudi Offers in January | OneFootball

The Saudi Pro League hasn’t had a particularly glitzy January window relative to their previous ones, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Its clubs tested the waters for at least ten Serie A players. However, none accepted the destination for one reason or the other, Tuttomercatoweb informs.

Stefano Pioli’s Al-Nassr were hunting for a high-profile striker. They eventually signed Jhon Duran from Aston Villa for €77M. They had approached Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic and Milan’s Rafael Leao beforehand, without finding an opening, even though the Bianconeri star faces an uncertain future.

The same side also poked around a couple of defenders. For instance, Danilo, who did leave the Old Lady and headed to Flamengo after being courted by Napoli, and Koni de Winter, who stayed put and will likely be the next big ‘plusvalenza’ by Genoa.

Al-Hilal inquired about Nicolò Barella while Inter were in Saudi Arabia for the Supercoppa. They’ll make another attempt in the summer. It’ll be an extremely challenging pursuit. Ah-Ahli lodged another bid for Victor Osimhen, but he preferred not to leave Galatasaray, where he’s on loan from Napoli.

Nicolò Fagioli had the chance to transfer to the Middle East before accepting the move to Fiorentina. Stefan de Vrij snubbed the Saudi chasers to stick around at Inter, which will need to decide whether to extend his contract in the next few months. Al-Shabab pursued Leandro Paredes, who has entered the final six months of his deal with Roma and is being eyed by Boca Juniors in particular, and Matteo Politano, but came up empty-handed. They proposed €7M wages to the winger.