El Shaarawy set for €10m-per-season free agent move to Al-Shabab
Quick summary
Stephan El Shaarawy is set to join Saudi Pro League side Al-Shabab as a free agent on a contract worth €10 million per season.
Full article
Attributed to original sourceStephan El Shaarawy is a free agent after his contract with Roma ran down and is expected to sign a €10m per year contract with Al-Shabab.
It has been quite the last few weeks for the 33-year-old, because he scored one of the decisive goals against Verona to secure Champions League qualification for Roma and then got married to long-term partner Ludovica Pagani.
His contract with the Giallorossi expired on June 30 and a new deal was not offered, so he is now ready for the next step in his career.
El Shaarawy set for Saudi Pro League ROME, ITALY – JANUARY 17: Stephan El Shaarawy of AS Roma celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during the Serie A match between AS Roma and Genoa at Stadio Olimpico on January 17, 2025 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images) Multiple sources including the Gazzetta dello Sport are confident an agreement has been reached with Al-Shabab, where he is set to earn €10m per season in wages.
It is a two-year deal, so a considerably pay day for the Little Pharaoh, who earned the nickname due to his Egyptian father.
Over different spells at the club, El Shaarawy made 348 competitive appearances for Roma, scoring 66 goals.
His other clubs included Genoa, Milan, AS Monaco and Shanghai Shenhua.
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What happened
Stephan El Shaarawy, the Italian forward, is reportedly on the verge of completing a move to Al-Shabab as a free agent. The Saudi Pro League club is offering a salary of €10 million per season, a significant pay rise that reflects the financial power of the Saudi league. El Shaarawy has spent most of his career in Serie A with clubs including Milan, Monaco, Roma, and most recently was without a club. The move continues the trend of experienced European-based players heading to Saudi Arabia.
Chance analysis
El Shaarawy's move to Al-Shabab at €10m per year underlines how Saudi Pro League clubs remain aggressive in signing experienced European players on free transfers, even as the marquee-name spending has cooled. For El Shaarawy, the deal secures a major financial windfall at a stage of his career where European top-flight offers had dried up. For Italian football, it represents the loss of another long-time Serie A contributor to the Gulf, though El Shaarawy's impact at his most recent club had been limited. The transfer has limited direct match-prediction relevance but signals Al-Shabab's continued investment in attacking talent.
Al-Shabab gain a versatile attacking option with Serie A pedigree, while El Shaarawy moves from European football to the Saudi Pro League on a lucrative contract.
Al-Shabab are adding an experienced European forward; consider their attacking options slightly strengthened, but El Shaarawy is past his peak and this is a free-agent move, not a transformative signing.