Saudi Arabia’s Turki Al-Sheikh, who acquired Spanish club Almeria in 2019, is one of the most interesting owners of football clubs.
The Almeria team, promoted to the league of lights and fame, “La Liga”, will visit Barcelona on Saturday in the latter’s stronghold, the “Camp Nou”.
Almeria are not one of the best Spanish clubs, as the club, founded in 1989, has spent most of its time in the lower divisions and is now experiencing its seventh season in the Premier League, and Unai Emery has been credited with the the team’s best overall position, the eighth 2007-2008 season.
The club’s suffering changed in the summer of 2019 when the current president of the Saudi Entertainment Authority, Turki Al-Sheikh, bought it for € 20 million.
Tony Brown, the England fan who has a season ticket for Almeria, told BBC Sport: “He has come with a lot of promises about how he intends to take Almeria to La Liga and then to European competitions. This is what made us pay attention. to the people.
And the new owner has backed up his promises to sign an unprecedented group of players, such as England’s young international Arvin Appiah for £ 8m from Nottingham Forest and then-unknown young Uruguayan striker Darwin Nunez, as well as changes and improvements in the game. club infrastructure.
“He brought in an entire management team to run the club and worked hard to modernize the stadium, the open teams have been closed, so it looks like a real stadium and is more comfortable,” added Brown.
Mohamed Jamal Al-Assi, CEO of the Spanish club, who had previously worked with Al-Sheikh during their experience with the Egyptian pyramids, spoke about the Almeria project to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, saying: Almeria is an individual project that represents the Al-Sheikh’s vision, if you imagine this project to be like Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain, that’s the general joke.
The Corona pandemic stopped Turki Al-Sheikh’s first season as president of Almeria, which led him to focus on making the club the central element of the entire city, and everything revolves around it.
“During the pandemic, Turki made large donations of medical equipment to the main local hospital and, through the club, contributed to food banks,” continued Brown. So he captured the hearts and minds of fans on and off the pitch.
He continued: “People see a man who lives up to his word, does his best to achieve what he said he would do, he has seen many games in the Almeria shirt. When he enters the catwalk, he is always encouraged and his name is sung.
English fan Tony Brown
Former Spanish international “Ruby” is currently taking up technical posts in Almeria, and the team is in 13th place with 13 points from 4 wins, 1 draw and 7 losses.
The club’s short term looks promising with talented manager Robbie leading a hungry young squad looking to stay in the big leagues this season, but then the rapidly developing club could take over European competition.
