Khobar. It is in this Saudi city of half a million inhabitants that Koen Casteels will settle after the Euro. No more question of Glasgow and even less of Anderlecht. The soon-to-be 32-year-old goalkeeper (on June 25) preferred to opt for the offer from the Al-Qadisiyah club, D2 champion and promoted to the Saudi Pro League, and agree to sign a three-year contract.
There, the Red Devil will play under the orders of Spanish coach Michel – who has worked for Marseille, Sevilla, Malaga and Olympiakos – who has just extended his contract until 2025. And as teammates? Casteels is the first international caliber name to join the squad. The German defender Alexander Hack (ex-Mainz), the Peruvian midfielder André Carrillo (ex-Benfica), the Portuguese left-back Kévin Rodrigues (ex-Real Sociedad), the Uruguayan midfielder Nahitan Nández (ex-Cagliari), but also the Senegalese striker formerly with Club Bruges Mbaye Diagne are the only foreigners in the current group.
A quadrupled salary
In the Saudi championship, the former Wolfsburg goalkeeper will face Yannick Carrasco, Cristiano Ronaldo, Aleksandr Mitrovic, Neymar, Riyad Mahrez and all the other stars who have joined the Kingdom in recent months. If the challenge proposed by the promotion undoubtedly tickled Koen Casteels a little, there is no doubt that it was above all the salary proposed which definitely convinced him.
During his stay at Al-Qadisiyah, the player trained at Genk will fetch nearly 10 million euros net per season, according to local media Al-Riyadiya, or more than four times the 2.12 million euros net that it touched at Wolfsburg. He will even become the third highest paid Red Devil, behind Kevin De Bruyne (€13.3M net/year) and Yannick Carrasco (€12.7M), and therefore ahead of… Thibaut Courtois (€7.2M). Under these conditions, it was obviously impossible for the RSCA to compete.
