Al Qadsiah have completed the signing of Atalanta striker Mateo Retegui, last season's top scorer in Serie A, in a deal reported to be worth around €70 million.
In one of the most intriguing Saudi Pro League transfers of the summer so far, Retegui arrives in Khobar at the height of his powers, joining an ambitious, Aramco-backed project determined to disrupt the domestic hierarchy.
Retegui, 26, is a classic number nine who has just enjoyed a spectacular season in Italy, scoring 25 goals in 36 Serie A games, six clear of next-best Moise Kean at Fiorentina.
Retegui inherited a love of sport from his father, a hockey player who represnted Argentina at the Olympics, a sport Retegui showed promise in when he was younger until the lure of football became too strong.
He started his career in his native Argentina at Boca Juniors but would only make one appearance at the club over five years. He spent various spells on loan at Estudiantes, Talleres and Tigre.
It was at Tigre where Retegui found his scoring touch, notching 35 goals in 70 games over two seasons. But it was the Italian national team's desperate lack of strike power that would take Retegui's career in a new direction.
Despite Italy's triumph at Euro 2020, by early 2023 then head coach Roberto Mancini was growing disillusioned. “I don't know why there are so few strikers,” he lamented. “We are very limited going forward.”
In his desperate search for a reliable number nine, he reached out to an old friend Juan Sebastian Veron, the former Argentina midfielder and an ex-teammate of Mancini's during their time at Lazio, who pointed him towards a relatively unknown forward at Tigre: a certain Mateo Retegui.
Intrigued, Mancini dispatched his most trusted adviser, Mauro Sandreani, whose primary role with the national team was to scout and assess emerging talent. His detailed report noted a striker with an eye for goal and physical presence in the box.
There were limitations: some tactical rawness, a lack of finesse off the ball, but the potential was unmistakable. Italy needed a striker, especially one with scoring instincts, moving quickly to entice a player with family roots in Sicily and Genoa.
Retegui remembers his first encounter with Mancini well: “I arrived at midnight, and he was waiting for me. ‘Do you know why you’re here?’ he asked. ‘To play,’ I said. ‘To play, yes,’ he replied, ‘but above all – to score goals.’ ‘Perfect,’ I told him, ‘I live for that.’”
And on March 23, 2023, he did exactly that – scoring on his debut against England in Naples. For a player whose great-grandfather once left Sicily seeking a better life, it was footballing fate.
A move to Serie A followed, joining Genoa for €15 million in the summer of 2023. Under Alberto Gilardino, Retegui offered glimpses of his potential but remained a work in progress, still adjusting to a new league and learning the language of Italian football.
He would finish the first season with nine goals in 31 games across competitions, enough to earn him a €28m move to Atlanta. And it was in Bergamo, under Gian Piero Gasperini, that he really blossomed.
In Gasperini’s 3-4-2-1, a system built to amplify his strengths, Retegui would not only finish as Serie A's top scorer but also joint-fourth in the assists chart. Once known for his directness and physicality, Retegui had grown into a more complete forward.
“Retegui has had an extraordinary season,” said Gasperini. “He has scored with his right foot, his left, his head – thanks also to the contribution of the team. His goals have been decisive for our campaign.”
That form caught attention of clubs across the globe and as the spotlight widened, the striker grew restless. As he weighed up his next move, a new challenge emerged, not from one of Europe’s giants, but from a club looking to make waves in a rapidly improving league.
In Saudi Arabia, Al Qadsiah have undergone a transformation of their own, having been taken over by state oil giant Saudi Aramco in the summer of 2023.
It was a move that immediately breathed life – and an unprecedented financial muscle – into the second-tier club that had become known for yo-yoing between the top two divisions.
Former Liverpool and England striker Robbie Fowler was appointed as manager and tasked with leading a full-scale rebuild that saw sixteen new signings arrive.
It looked like Fowler was on track as Al Qadsiah started the 2023/24 season with six wins and two draws from eight league matches, leaving them one point off top spot, with his lone defeat coming in the King's Cup against top-flight Al Taawoun.
But just four months in, Spanish sporting director Carlos Anton decided to change tact, sacking Fowler and bringing in the experienced Michel, a countryman who had previously coached at clubs including Sevilla, Marseille and Olympiacos.
Al Qadsiah would go on to secure promotion as first division champions and return to SPL football for first time since 2021.
That momentum would continue back in the Saudi Pro League. Armed with Aramco’s resources, Al Qadsiah secured headline signings Nacho, the former Real Madrid captain and Spain defender, Uruguayan midfielder Nahitan Nandez from Cagliari, and veteran Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Marseille.
The team would finish the 2024/25 in fourth place, behind champions Al Ittihad, Al Hilal and Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr. Al Qadsiah boasted the league's best defence, conceding 31 goals.
A run to the King’s Cup final – where they would lose 3-1 to Ittihad with Karim Benzema scoring twice – would help cement their arrival among Saudi Arabian football's elite.
With Aubameyang moving back to Marseille, Al Qadsiah turned their attentions to Retegui. And despite warnings that a move to the kingdom could jeopardise his role with the national team, Retegui has agreed to the move.
Atalanta drove a hard bargain and the deal is the club’s second-biggest sale, behind only Rasmus Hojlund’s move to Manchester United.
Predictably, the Italians aren’t happy, but even Gazzetta dello Sport acknowledged the growing appeal of Saudi Arabia, calling it “the opportunity of a lifetime”.
At Al Qadsiah, he finds a club that mirrors his own trajectory: once overlooked, now ambitious and unafraid to dream bigger. The SPL has acquired a player at the peak of his powers.
Scoreline
Saudi Arabia 1-0 Japan
Saudi Arabia Al Muwallad 63’
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Uefa Champions League last 16 draw
Juventus v Tottenham Hotspur
Basel v Manchester City
Sevilla v Manchester United
Porto v Liverpool
Real Madrid v Paris Saint-Germain
Shakhtar Donetsk v Roma
Chelsea v Barcelona
Bayern Munich v Besiktas
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
Fight card
1. Featherweight 66kg: Ben Lucas (AUS) v Ibrahim Kendil (EGY)
2. Lightweight 70kg: Mohammed Kareem Aljnan (SYR) v Alphonse Besala (CMR)
3. Welterweight 77kg:Marcos Costa (BRA) v Abdelhakim Wahid (MAR)
4. Lightweight 70kg: Omar Ramadan (EGY) v Abdimitalipov Atabek (KGZ)
5. Featherweight 66kg: Ahmed Al Darmaki (UAE) v Kagimu Kigga (UGA)
6. Catchweight 85kg: Ibrahim El Sawi (EGY) v Iuri Fraga (BRA)
7. Featherweight 66kg: Yousef Al Husani (UAE) v Mohamed Allam (EGY)
8. Catchweight 73kg: Mostafa Radi (PAL) v Ahmed Abdelraouf of Egypt (EGY)
9. Featherweight 66kg: Jaures Dea (CMR) v Andre Pinheiro (BRA)
10. Catchweight 90kg: Tarek Suleiman (SYR) v Juscelino Ferreira (BRA)
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
