Japanese national team ace Takefusa Kubo received an offer from Saudi Arabia. It was higher than the reported salary that Son Heung-min was offered.
Spain’s Football España reported on the 11th (Korea time) that “Real Sociedad star Kubo rejected Saudi Arabia’s offer of 160 million euros (about 238 billion won).”
Football España said, ‘Kubo is unlikely to leave Sociedad this summer. It is unlikely that Liverpool made the offer, but a Saudi club has confirmed it. He claimed in an interview with French Football that he rejected Saudi Arabia’s offer of a four-year contract worth a total of 160 million euros.’
Kubo grew up with La Masia, Barcelona’s academy, and Real Madrid’s youth team. He went to Europe for the first time in 2011 when he was 10 years old, and he was known to be close with Lee Kang-in, who joined Valencia Youth. However, Kubo’s life in Europe was temporarily suspended after Barcelona was punished by the International Football Federation for violating rules prohibiting players under the age of 18 from transferring to overseas clubs. Kubo headed back to Japan and started his professional career by making his J-League debut.
Kubo, who joined Castilla, the second-tier Real, again, sought a first-tier call-up but was unable to take the opportunity due to the lack of prominent players. Since then, he has had to grow up on loan at Villarreal, Mallorca, and Getafe. During his time in Mallorca, he played with Lee Kang-in. Kubo, who grew up on loan, eventually moved to Real Sociedad ahead of the 2022-2023 season, facing a turning point in his transfer of players.
Since moving to Sociedad, Kubo has become a completely different player. He has been a leading player in Sociedad’s rise with nine goals and seven assists in the 2022-2023 season, and he himself has been reborn as the best winger in La Liga. In the previous 2023-2024 season, he also played with seven goals and five assists in 41 official games. Sociedad quickly re-signed Kubo in February and planned to keep him until 2029. He also topped the Asian player’s value with 60 million euros (about 87 billion won) based on soccer statistics media transfermark last season, beating even Son Heung-min and Kim Min-jae, the best players in Asia. 스포츠토토
Rumors of a transfer to Liverpool surfaced recently, but Kubo seems to have received a huge offer from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is known to offer contracts including huge salaries to attract top Asian stars such as Son Heung-min, Kim Min-jae, and Lee Kang-in to the Saudi stage along with some of the best European stars. Kubo was one of the targets of such interest.
Kubo was not tempted by Saudi Arabia. “The most important thing for me is to compete with the best players,” he said, explaining why he did not accept the offer. He did, however, leave open the possibility of going to Saudi Arabia a little. “If Saudi Arabia becomes the best league in the world in the distant future, I will go, too. But now, I am only interested in the economic aspect.”
Meanwhile, since Kubo’s salary proposed by Saudi Arabia was higher than Son Heung-min’s previous salary offered by Saudi Arabia, Kubo’s current value is expected to be higher than Son Heung-min, Asia’s best striker beyond South Korea. Attention may also be paid to the size of Lee Kang-in’s salary, which has emerged as a subject of Saudi interest along with Kubo.
Son was reportedly offered an annual salary of 30 million euros (44 billion won) at the time of last summer. This is about 15 billion euros lower than the amount that Kubo was offered. In terms of four years, the offer gap is about 60 billion won. Of course, Son is quite different from Kubo, and he also rejected to go to Saudi Arabia before Kubo for that annual salary. He expressed his commitment to focus on his life at Tottenham by drawing a line between last summer and this summer.
Prior to the news of Kubo, it was recently reported that Lee Kang-in could also receive Saudi offers. As Kubo said he has received an all-time transfer offer, attention is being paid to how high Saudi Arabia will put on the negotiation table to bring Lee Kang-in.
After Son Heung-min, Kim Min-jae, and Lee Kang-in, Kubo was offered a huge salary. However, Kubo’s choice was on the European stage. Saudi Arabia’s proposal for top Asian players is hardly working.