“My wife was telling me, ‘How are they going to give you that, you idiot?’” - Di Maria on Saudi club matching his ‘crazy’ demand with transfer offer

Argentina legend Angel Di Maria recently revealed that he received a huge from a Saudi Arabian club. He said that it came during his time at Juventus after the 2022 FIFA World Cup, where he helped La Albiceleste win the trophy.

Di Maria had joined Juventus as a free agent after leaving Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2022. He was set to leave the Italian side next summer after winning the World Cup with Argentina. At that point, he received an offer from a Saudi Arabian side.

The forward demanded a much higher fee in hopes the club would refuse but they agreed. However, he eventually decided to reject it and join Benfica instead. In a recent interview, he said (via All About Argentina on X):

"The truth is, I received an offer from Arabia and I said no. Then another offer came, more than double, from the same club. I said no again. That’s when my friend told me, 'We need to say something because I’m not sure if they know that you don’t want to go play there'. So I said, 'Well, if they give us this (referring to a much higher amount), maybe we’ll go'. And they actually offered that!

"My wife was telling me, 'How are they going to give you that, you idiot?' Well, the idiot was right. I threw a crazy number, expecting for them to say no, but instead, they said, 'Yes, yes, done?' When my friend told me they accepted, I told my wife, 'See? I’m not an idiot. We asked, and they met it.' Then we were like, 'Now what?' But in the end, we decided to go to Lisbon, to Benfica. I ended up turning it down.

Di Maria also ruled out any future move to Saudi Arabia, saying:

"All of this happened after the World Cup, when I was at Juve, during that time. I think it was a combination of everything. But now, that’s it. If that offer came again, I think I’d pass. I don’t really feel like going to a place like that at the end of my career."

Di Maria has scored 14 goals and provided eight assists in 32 games across competitions this season for Benfica.

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A look at Angel Di Maria's career so far

The Argentine forward came through Rosario Central's academy before joining Benfica in 2007. He spent three years with the Portuguese giants before joining Real Madrid for a reported €33 million transfer fee. Di Maria's stocks rose with the Spanish giants as he recorded 36 goals and 85 assists in 190 games, winning numerous trophies.

He then joined Manchester United in 2014 for a reported fee of €75 million but left just a year later after falling out with manager Louis van Gaal. He then joined PSG and spent seven years at the club, registering 93 goals and 119 assists in 295 games. He won all the domestic cups possible with the French side.

The 37-year-old then joined Juventus for a year before returning to Benfica in 2023. For Argentina, Di Maria made 145 appearances, scoring 31 goals and providing 32 assists. He won the FIFA World Cup, among other honors, before retiring from the national team in 2024.