- Ahmed Musa becomes most expensive signing in Saudi Pro League history
- He joins World Cup stars Amrabat, Ramos and Jones at the Riyadh club
Al-Nassr have smashed a Saudi Pro League record to sign Nigeria international Ahmed Musa.
The Riyadh club announced they have recruited the 25-year-old forward on a four-year deal after agreeing a fee with Premier League club Leicester City. Although the fee is undisclosed, respected website transfermarkt.co.uk document the fee at €16.5 million ($19.14 million), which would eclipse the €10.24 million Al-Ahli paid for Djaniny last month.
It is easily an Al-Nassr club-record buy, beating the €9.8 million Al-Nassr paid Al-Ettifaq for Saudi Arabia international Yahia Al-Shehri in 2013.
Leicester paid CSKA Moscow a club-record £16.6 million ($21.4 million) for Musa in 2016 and even though he scored two goals in 21 games for the Premier League club, they were seeking to recoup their outlay on the forward and turned down a bid of £12 million last month.
Musa added to his value by scoring both goals for Nigeria in their World Cup win over Iceland in Russia.
He joins a remodelled Al-Nassr squad that has been boosted by the arrival of other World Cup participants Nordin Amrabat, Christian Ramos and Brad Jones.
The four summer signings reflect Al-Nassr’s bid to kick-on from their third-place finish last season and mount a challenge to Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal. Jose Daniel Carreno’s also have a two-legged playoff match to qualify for the Asian Champions League on the horizon.
Al-Nassr’s top five most expensive signings
Ahmed Musa £14.85m
Yahia Al-Shehri £8.82m
Nordin Amrabat £7.65m
Naif Hazazi £6.12m
Hernane £4.77m