When Roberto Firmino’s Liverpool contract wound down in the summer of 2023, the Brazilian forward decided to make the switch to the Saudi Pro League and Al Ahli. Somewhat surprisingly, he claims he made that move despite interest from Real Madrid.
That decision came down to certainty. There was a firm—and lucrative—contract on offer from Al Ahli. On the other hand, Madrid’s interest was genuine but they were still asking him to wait to see how their other potential moves developed before committing
to a deal.
“To be honest, there was interest,” Firmino told TNT Brasil. “My agency told me about it. And yes, recently again there was interest, but not like before when I had my offer to go to Arabia. Back then there was real interest from Madrid. But there were a lot of factors.
“I wasn’t the first option so I might have had to wait quite a bit. I’m not impatient, but I would have had to wait and I had the offer from Al Ahli and had to think if that was really the right thing. So that’s how it happened and I think it’s what was meant to happen.”
Whether meant to be or not, Firmino’s move to Al Ahli didn’t see the striker succeed on the pitch, at least not in the early going when we ended up left out their squad in the AFC Champions League. Firmino joined Al Sadd in the Qatar Stars League this past summer.
