He bought an Egyptian football club, but it came out scalded. He doesn't care. He has just won the Almeria, a classic of our League, for 20 million
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Last summer Turki bin Al Shaij (38) revolutionized Egyptian football. Acquired a modest club from the south of the country, he transferred it to the capital and renamed it "Pyramids FC" after injecting millions of dollars and signing astronomical contracts with players and technical equipment that pulverized the local market figures. Turki landed in the land of the pharaohs like an elephant in a pot shop, with a king's nipples and the card of his "boss," the almighty Saudi crown prince Mohamed bin Salman (34). His ambitious adventure - which failed to unseat Al Ahli, the most traditional team in the country, nor dazzled an audience that never accepted Turki - ended abruptly in July. Furious at the denied carantoñas despite his monumental expense, Turki packed up ; He completed the sale of the equipment to an advanced Emirati investor in February and returned home.
Now, just a month later, he has returned to the streets. But his assault is no longer aimed at Egyptian football, where he ended up transcribed, but Spanish, where he aspires to reign . Turki has just done with the Almería Sports Union, a group that after two recent steps by the League of Stars has been worth four years for the Second Division . Since last August 2, Turki al Shaij is officially the owner of the Andalusian team after the sale of the club to Alfonso García, the businessman who controlled the entity since July 2013.
20 million in cash
The thirtieth year has disbursed 20 million euros in cash and also assumes the debt of seven million that dragged Almeria. Turki - a close associate of the future king of Saudi Arabia, in darkness for resolutions as aggressive as the war in Yemen or the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi - already has a new candy. And Almeria pays homage. The club's twitter account has exhibited its new leader in the red and white shirt, happy for his landing in the Spanish League. He is accompanied in his mission to conquer the national football the new director general of the entity, Mohamed el Assy, called to be his public image. Earlier this week, Mohamed presented in society the first signing of the Al Shaykh era: right-back Ivan Balliu. "Thanks Turki al Shaij," the player wrote obediently on his Twitter account after signing his incorporation.
The new "king of Almeria" likes to have everything under control and surround himself with flatterers . "He wants to have all things organized. No one in the world did so many things in such a short time . He had to build a club and buy practically all the players," Argentine coach Ramón Díaz, then coach of the Pyramids, told LOC a few months ago. . "He wants to make a great club. He has a vision to make everything very cordial. He is very competitive, he observes how the club is constantly going and has made everything we needed available to us. He has no economic problems," he declared when the rumors of Sale had not yet been confirmed.
Before his traumatic Egyptian voyage and the start of his Spanish adventure now, Turki had already forged a name as Saudi Sports Minister. From September 2017 until last January, he signed millionaire contracts with international sports organizations. Among them, the one of the Formula E presided by Alejandro Agag (48), the son-in-law of José María Aznar, and who celebrated his first career in the country in December . He also led the Saudi Olympic Committee, the union of Arab football associations and the Islamic sports federation.
Whitener of a Kingdom
Last December Turki left the portfolio from which he had tried to bleach the image of an ultraconservative and isolated kingdom to lead a key organization in the country's public relations strategy, the General Entertainment Authority, the institution created in 2016 that is behind the sudden obsession with leisure of a State whose ideology had so far banned movie theaters, theater or musical shows. Since then, Turki and his entourage have devised a multimillion dollar strategy that last month planted a kind of Valencian failures on the seafront of the city of Jeddah and promises to host a Saudi version of the "Sanfermines" in addition to cramming the Saudis with concerts , careers and theme parks.
Turki has climbed in the Saudi court at the hands of Bin Salman , as a faithful and influential squire. Khashoggi, shortly before finishing dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, warned of the danger posed by the inner circle of the crown prince. Bin Salman, he slipped, "has no political advisors except Turki bin Al Shaij and Saud al Qahtani." " They are very raw. People fear them. If you challenge them, you can end up in jail," the reporter said.
A temper that Turki showed without blushing during his ephemeral Egyptian journey. A year ago he already threatened to leave the club after becoming the target of criticism, jokes, songs and insults of the Egyptian fans, emboldened by the Saudi reaction itself. "I suffer strange attacks every day from all fronts. Why this headache?" He tweeted then. Of expensive luxuries - he bought a sports car Bugatti Chiron for 4.8 million dollars when the Saudi court prescribed austerity to his subjects - and fluid verbiage that has caused the occasional diplomatic conflict, Turki - acclaimed by local authorities - promises the manna in Almeria, the beautiful "Al Mariyyat" of the Arabs. The enigma now is to decipher how tolerant the thirties will be to patience , failure and criticism and how long their sudden Andalusian passion will last.
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