04 November 2023 , 07:30
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The Saudi Pro League has flexed its financial might with moves for the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema over the last 12 months, but the Ballon d'Or winning pair are far from the first big names to make such a switch.
Ronaldo moved to Al-Nassr in a mega-money deal midway through last season, while Benzema followed suit over the summer after leaving Real Madrid. Long before them, though, there was Hristo Stoichkov.
Bulgaria forward Stoichkov starred in the first of two Barcelona spells, winning the final European Cup before the Champions League rebrand in 1992 and claiming the Ballon d'Or two years later. In 1998, though, he joined Al-Nassr in a deal like no other.
As his second Barca spell neared its close, Stoichkov spent time back in his homeland with CSKA Sofia. Before the end of the 1997-98 season, though, Al-Nassr came calling with a six-figure deal... for just two appearances.
This wasn't a case of a big-money flop taking the cash and failing to play, though. Rather, the contract was only ever set to include those two matches as Al-Nassr pushed to win the Asian Cup Winners' Cup.
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After beating Qatari side Al-Ittihad on aggregate in the quarter-finals, Al-Nassr needed just two victories to win the competition for the first time in their history. And they decided it was worth sending £165,000 the way of Stoichkov, according to various reports, to make sure of it.
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Barcelona star Hristo Stoichkov won the Ballon d'Or in 1994 (Alain Gadoffre / Onze / Icon Sport via Getty Images)Stoichkov didn't score in the semi-final, against Kopetdag of Turkmenistan, but all-time record Saudi scorer Majed Abdullah helped them secure a 2-1 victory. That set up a final against Suwon Samsung Bluewings, where Stoichkov scored the only goal of the game to deliver Al-Nassr the trophy.
True to his word, the veteran left Saudi Arabia after that two-game cameo, but he had another five years left in him. Stoichkov's nomadic late career saw him spend time in Japan and the United States - winning further trophies in both countries - before retiring in 2003 at the age of 37: the same age Ronaldo was when he joined Al-Nassr
The Asian Cup Winners' Cup no longer exists, and Al-Nassr never added to that one title delivered by Stoichkov. Now, though, the Riyadh-based side have bigger targets.
Al-Nassr have spent big again over the last 12 months to sign the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane (Getty Images)Ronaldo was joined by further marquee signings this summer, including Champions League winner Sadio Mane joining from Bayern Munich and Aymeric Laporte arriving after winning the Treble with Manchester City last season. The new recruits arrived with the aim of helping the club improve on last season's runner-up finish, though they currently only sit second in the league after 11 games.
In the AFC Champions League, three goals apiece from Ronaldo and Anderson Talisca have helped Luis Castro's team boast a 100 per cent group stage record after three games. Come May, they'll want to be celebrating a first continental title since the Stoichkov-inspired success all those years ago.