Roma fans’ defiant message in the face of Paulo Dybala’s imminent sale to Arab football

Paulo Dybala is not in Roma’s plans for next season, according to reports from Italy (REUTERS/Ciro De Luca)

Saudi Arabia has become the new hot destination in world football thanks to the arrival of international stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mané at Al Nassr, Bono at Al Hilal and Karim Benzema at Al Ittihad. This trio has now been joined by another candidate who has broken their piggy bank and is about to land a world champion with the Argentine national team.

Al Qadsiah, Ezequiel Equi Fernández’s recent destination, persists in its desire to have Paulo Dybala for this season and awaits the player’s response. The club that was promoted to the First Division this season is “convinced of having done everything possible to get the final yes” with a contract of 60 million euros (more than USD 65 million) for three years and several benefits for him, according to information given by the journalist specialized in the transfer market, Gianluca Di Marzio.

The offer to Roma to allow the departure of La Joya would be 18 million euros and the Wolf authorised the Argentine to negotiate his salary. However, the forward is comfortable in Italy earning a salary of almost 4 million euros per season, which can rise to 7 million with his additional payments. The proposal from the Arabs amounts to 20 million dollars (plus bonuses for objectives) per year.

According to this source, the Cordoba native’s agent, Carlos Novel, met on Wednesday in the Italian capital with representatives of Al Qadsiah, who have been following the striker closely since the beginning of the month. However, an unexpected voice was raised against the departure of one of the great figures of the team led last season by Jorge Mourinho until his resignation and the subsequent arrival of Daniele De Rossi.

The graffiti near Roma’s training centre reads: “Paulo is not for sale”

The Twitter account @PlanetaRoma, which is dedicated to the club’s daily information, published a graffiti made outside Roma’s training ground in Trigoria with a clear message from a person who was against the negotiation: “Paulo is not for sale.” A defiant message that surely expresses the opinion of many. The 30-year-old striker arrived at the club with a pass in his possession from Juventus in mid-2022 and, over these two years, he played 77 games with 34 goals and 18 assists. His performance keeps him highly esteemed among the fans.

For the moment, Paulo Dybala has trained under De Rossi and is available to visit Cagliari this Sunday for the first matchday of Serie A. Similarly, in Italy they assured that his name is not at the center of the coach’s project, despite the fact that the former Boca player had praised him last May: “He is the one I like the most from a physical point of view, because he runs a lot.”

In a different vein, Al Qadsiah is awaiting the resolution of the negotiations for the formation of a squad full of stars. In addition to the signing of Ezequiel Fernández, there are also the former Barcelona player Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the Colombian striker naturalised Mexican, Julián Quiñones, the central defender with a past at Real Madrid, Nacho, the Belgian goalkeeper Koen Casteels and the Uruguayan Nahitan Nandez, among other names.