Gabri Veiga, a midfielder for Celta Vigo who Toni Kroos has criticized for choosing to move to Saudi Arabia, was wanted by a number of teams, including Liverpool and Napoli.
The upcoming sale of Celta Vigo midfielder Gabri Veiga to Saudi Arabian club Al-Ahli has been dubbed “embarrassing” by Toni Kroos of Real Madrid.
Veiga had a breakthrough season at the top-flight Spanish team the previous year, and this summer, a transfer to Liverpool was heavily rumored. However, it seemed in recent weeks that he was about to sign for Italian champions Napoli, who had reached a £30 million deal with Celta.
Al-Ahli swooped to sign Veiga after the agreement delayed over the past week and Piotr Zielinski’s projected transfer to the Middle East fell through as well. A huge victory for the Saudi club may be seen in this.
They are one of the most active Saudi clubs in the summer transfer window, and they are based in Jeddah. This summer, a large number of players with European bases moved to Saudi Arabia as part of a targeted recruitment campaign by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of the country’s financing transfers.
This summer, European teams lost Roberto Firmino, Edouard Mendy, Franck Kessie, Allan Saint-Maximin, Merih Demiral, Riyad Mahrez, and Roger Ibanez to Al-Ahli, but the signing of Veiga, a 21-year-old player in high demand throughout Europe’s major divisions, is noteworthy.
The Madrid midfielder Kroos came out against the trade, calling Veiga’s relocation to the Middle East “embarrassing” in a comment under a Fabrizio Romano transfer post on social media, making it obvious that he thought the Spaniard was doing the wrong thing.
Kroos, 33, has spent his whole footballing career competing at the highest level in Europe. Before joining Real Madrid in 2014, he spent seven years playing for Bayern Munich’s first team. He has since been a crucial member of the group for nine seasons.
Kroos labelled Veiga’s decision to move to Saudi Arabia as “embarrassing” on social media ( Image: Instagram)
Having also won 106 caps for the German national team – with whom he won the World Cup in 2014 – Kroos has ensured he has played in football’s most prestigious tournaments across the entirety of his career and is not shy in expressing his views on the direction of the sport.
The central midfielder, regarded as one of the most technically gifted and positionally aware midfielders of a generation, has frequently spoken about his desire to retire at Real Madrid and to hang up his boots when he believed he could no longer operate at the top level.