N’Golo Kanté is being offered a salary that could reach €100m (£86.2m) a year to join a club in Saudi Arabia. The midfielder’s Chelsea contract expires this month and emissaries from Saudi Arabia are in London to present their proposal.
Kanté is wanted by Al-Ittihad and Al-Nassr, two of four Saudi clubs in which the country’s sovereign wealth fund, which owns Newcastle, took 75% stakes on Monday. His salary would include image rights, commercial deals and an investment portfolio. Al-Ittihad were confident on Tuesday evening of getting the green light for a transfer after putting their case to Kanté and his representatives.
Karim Benzema has signed a contract to move to Al-Ittihad from Real Madrid and Al-Nassr are the team Cristiano Ronaldo joined last December. Their deals run to 2025 on salaries of about €200m a year with commercial agreements included.
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Lionel Messi is also wanted in Saudi Arabia and has been offered more than £350m a year by Al-Hilal. Saudi clubs are also pushing to sign Sergio Busquets after his departure from Barcelona and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who is leaving Chelsea, and has been approached by Al-Ahli and Al-Shabab. Al-Hilal and Al-Ahli are the other two clubs in which Saudi’s Public Investment Fund took its 75% stakes.
Kanté has always given priority to a new Chelsea deal and was close to signing an extension in March but nothing has been finalised. He was 32 in March and was restricted by injuries to nine appearances this season.
