Al Ahli of Saudi Arabia’s professional league, who wanted to recruit Son Heung-min as captain of Tottenham Hotspur this summer, has expressed interest in recruiting his colleague Hishalisson. Hishalisson also seems to have opened up about moving overseas.
Ben Jacobs, a reporter specializing in the transfer market, said on SNS on the 8th (Korea Standard Time), “Al Ahli’s interest in Hishalisson is real, as previously revealed,” adding, “There is no bid yet, but traders know Tottenham is asking for 60 million pounds (about 104.7 billion won).”
Gary Jacob, a reporter for the British ‘The Times’, also said, “Hishalisson is going to the Saudi professional league, and Al Ahli has shown interest,” adding, “He seems to have changed his mind about moving abroad.”
Tottenham’s contract with Hishalisson remains three years away, but Tottenham intends to sell him this summer. The transfer seemed not to take place because Hishalisson did not want to transfer, but if Hishalisson changed his mind, the transfer could proceed quickly.
Tottenham are expected to sell Hisalysong this summer and reinforce their new strikers. Several strikers, including Bournemouth’s Dominic Solanke and Brentford’s Ivan Toney, have been mentioned as candidates for Tottenham’s recruitment.
Tottenham wants to reinforce the striker because they feel sorry for Hishalisson’s performance.
Hisalisson, who moved from Everton to Tottenham in the summer of 2022, did not have a satisfactory season with Tottenham. In the first season, he had to remain a candidate striker due to the presence of Harry Kane, who scored 280 goals in Tottenham alone, making him the club’s all-time leading scorer. His transfer fee alone was £60 million, but there was no place for him.
However, the second season was different. As Kane moved to Bayern Munich after leaving Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of last year, Hishalisson would most likely take the striker position. Tottenham also trusted Hishalisson and did not seek to recruit a striker.
Hishalisson did not perform as well as expected. He failed to score at the beginning of the season and failed to show himself as a troubleshooter as a Tottenham striker. There were many voices calling for the exclusion of Hishalisson from the starting lineup and the establishment of Son Heung-min, who has experience as a striker.
Tottenham manager Anji Postecoglou also made a decision. He replaced Hisalisson as a striker, while Son displayed strong determination and displayed remarkable performance as well. Son appeared in 23 out of 36 matches as a striker last season.
Striker Son Heung-min was encouraged by his outstanding performance, but he could not afford to keep Hishalisson on the bench. Postecoglou gave him consistent opportunities to play, including substitution, and Hishalisson began to gradually increase his scoring pace in December. Son Heung-min has been a troubleshooter himself, scoring five goals in four league matches that he missed at the Asian Cup. 메이저놀이터
Son Heung-min came back and expected synergy, but the injury caught his ankle. He was replaced by an injury in the game against Wolverhampton in February and failed to raise his physical condition properly until the end of the season. After the injury, the only starting game was a league game against Chelsea.
Tottenham Hotspur F.C. wants to sell Hisalysong at the price they brought in. European teams are not willing to buy Hisalysong at that price, so they plan to continue dialogue with the Saudi league, which is aggressive in recruiting Premier League players. Chelsea also secured transfer funds by selling several players to the Saudi league last summer.
Al Ahli seems to have changed his recruitment target from Son Heung-min to Hishalisson. In July, it was reported that Al Ahli wanted Son Heung-min.
“Since Son Heung-min is already 32 years old, he can play for Tottenham for two more seasons before moving to Saudi Arabia in 2026 and signing the last big contract,” British media “Team Talk” reported as if it was a fact that Son Heung-min would go to Saudi Arabia after the contract is over two years later.
“The Saudis ideally wanted to recruit Son Heung-min when he was close to his prime like last summer or this summer,” he said. “But Son Heung-min decided to help end Tottenham’s winning drought before leaving.”
Leaving behind Son’s recruitment, Al Ahli is set to recruit Hishalisson this summer. Al Ahli wants to recruit Hishalisson and form a Premier League team with Roberto Firmino and Riyad Mahrez.
Hishalisson visited Korea as a member of the Brazilian national team in 2022, had fun with Neymar, showed good performance, and then properly enjoyed Seoul in Tottenham’s Korean tour. However, two years of controversy at Tottenham are coming to an end.