Is handball the next sport in line for a big Saudi cash injection?

Saudi Arabia is trying to upset the balance in world football by going after international superstars, giving them monumental salaries along the way. But the Saudis seem to have plans outside of the 'beautiful game', as they have now turned their attention to handball.

Danish handball player Mikkel Hansen is the latest sports star to be offered huge sums of money by the Saudis.

Per reporting in Germany’s Sport Bild, Hansen was getting paid around one million Euros a season ($1.1m US) during his ten-year stint at Paris Saint Germain. The Saudis are offering now him around 3.6 million Euros.

Hansen is currently playing for Aalborg Håndbold (handball) in his native Denmark where he is contracted until 2025, but given the money on the table, he has a big decision to make about his future.

If Hansen were to leave for Saudi Arabia, he would not be the first big-name handball player to do so, with Portugese André Gomes already making the move to the desert where he plays for Al Safa.

Gomes was playing for MT Melsungen in the German league before his big move, Per Sport Bild, whilst there he was earning around 500,000 Euros and is set to nearly double that if he meets all the incentives of his contract.

Per the Sport Bild report, not a single player in the German handball Bundesliga will earn over a million Euros in 2023, with the highest paid player earning 800,000.

Despite the moral qualms some may have with the Saudi sportswashing operation, for handball players, the chance to earn millions a year could well be too tempting to pass up given their salaries are relatively small compared to their footballing colleagues.

Handball is one of the biggest sports in Europe, but it also has a fairly big following in Saudi Arabia already, with a league running since 1975 and consistently good results at Asian Men's Handball Championships over the years.

Whilst the reporting on Saudi handball is still limited the signing of Mikkel Hansen would be a real coup for the Saudi league. He is not only one of the best players of his generation, but he brings a huge following with over 250,000 Instagram followers and the loyalty of the Danish nation behind him.