Al-Hilal star Sergej Milinkovic-Savic demands respect be shown to Saudi Pro League after stunning Club World Cup win over Man City - and urges detractors to 'criticise us now'
The Serbian was one of the high-profile names to swap elite football on the continent for the riches of the Saudi top flight, which received a substantial cash injection from the nations' Public Investment Fund in 2023.
During his eight-year stay in Rome with Serie A giants Lazio, Milinkovic-Savic attracted the attention of several top European clubs and as a result, his move to Al-Hilal was seen as emblematic of the shifting priorities of some of the sport's biggest stars.
But following Al-Hilal's 4-3 win over Manchester City in the round of 16 of the Club World Cup - and their unbeaten campaign, which has included clashes against Real Madrid and RB Slazburg, as a whole - there has begun to be a reappraisal of the quality of football being played in the Gulf State.
Milinkovic-Savic, who starred in the 120-minute Florida clash, hit back at detractors of Saudi football, taunting naysayers with a request to criticise after their stunning upset.
'Let's see now if they will criticise us after these games,' said Milinkovic-Savic. 'We showed them that they're [wrong], the way the speak about the league.
'We showed against Real Madrid, Salzburg, Pachuca, we showed tonight and I hope that we will continue to show that it's not like this.'
Al-Hilal boss Simeone Inzaghi made an even more stunning switch this summer, with him opting to depart Champions League finallists Inter Milan for the Riyadh-based outfit ahead of the Club World Cup.
'The key of this result are the players, the heart they put on the pitch,' said the Italian. 'Tonight we had to do something extraordinary because we knew how good Manchester City are, we knew we had to climb Mount Everest without oxygen, and we were great.
'[Pep] Guardiola is the best coach in the world, but tonight we did our best and we deserved the result.'
Meanwhile, City skipper Bernardo Silva admitted that the pain of crashing out of the Club World Cup is similar to exiting the Champions League.
City twice came from behind but were finally vanquished by a scruffy goal from Marcos Leonardo after 112 minutes.
'It does feel a little bit like going out of the Champions League, yeah,' he admitted.
'No one wanted to lose, we are very used to not having holidays unfortunately because the schedule is crazy. But when we are in a competition we take it very seriously and we had a lot of ambition for this Club World Cup and we wanted to win it.'
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