Liverpool star speaks out on teammates moving to Saudi Arabia

Ronan Murphy

• Updated: 24 Jul 2023 17:10 BST
• 3 min read

Liverpool midfielder Fabio Carvalho has spoken to FootballTransfers and given his thoughts on the decision of several of his teammates to move to Saudi Arabia.

The Portuguese youngster joined the Reds from Fulham last summer, but after showing immense promise early on, he found himself out of Jurgen Klopp's team more often than not.

This prompted him to head out on loan to Bundesliga outfit RB Leipzig for the upcoming season. There were suggestions that he could leave permanently, but Liverpool were keen to keep him on the books and thus opted for a temporary solution to his playing time issues.

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But what will the future hold for him after his Leipzig stint? Will he join several of his Liverpool teammates in Saudi Arabia? Speaking to FootballTransfers, Carvalho responded: “I don’t know. Not anytime soon, I don't think."

"What other players are doing," he continued, "I'm sure they have good reasons to do it. I’m not here judging anyone. But for me, for now, I want to play in Europe and Europe is where the best footballers are currently. It's not for me right now."

Carvalho on Henderson, et al

He also spoke about the likes of Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Roberto Firmino moving to the Saudi Pro League. "If they want to do what they want to do, then that's their choice..."

Will he watch the competition? "Yeah, I'll watch it, of course. There are so many superstars going, so I'll definitely be watching and I’m sure the league is only going to get better and better every year, so I'll be watching it because I love football anyways."

Firmino has already joined Al-Ahli, while Henderson is expected to follow Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard to Al-Ettifaq. Fabinho, meanwhile, is in negotiations to join reigning champions Al-Ittihad, who already boast Karim Benzema and N'Golo Kante in their squad.

READ: Liverpool star's Saudi move under THREAT because of his DOGS

The Brazilian's move has, however, been stalling for a peculiar reason: his dogs, a pair of French bulldogs, are not allowed to follow him to Saudi Arabia as the country's law prohibits them from entering "under any circumstances." Nevertheless, a deal - potentially worth a hefty €46 million - is expected to be struck soon.