Al Hilal will seek to repeat the dream season they had last year, with the added benefit of having Neymar. The star is in the final stages of recovering from the serious knee injury that sidelined him from the fields since October of last year.
The forward was only able to play five matches in Saudi Arabia, and once he is fit, he will add his magic to a team that has already won everything in his absence. The players coached by Jorge Jesus conquered the league and the local cup, achieving a record of 32 consecutive victories.
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Before the start of the campaign, Al Hilal must resolve a dilemma regarding the foreign player quota. With the arrival of full-back João Cancelo, the club now has nine players from other countries born after 2003, one more than the limit allowed by the local federation.
Neymar had already been excluded from this registration last year due to his injury, which allowed his compatriot Renan Lodi to enter the roster. The sale of Michael to Flamengo opened up a spot for Neymar again, but now with Cancelo, the team is once again over the limit.
Moroccan Bono, Senegalese Kalidou Koulibaly, Portuguese Rúben Neves, Serbians Sergej Milinković-Savić and Aleksandar Mitrović, and Brazilian Malcom, in addition to the aforementioned Lodi, Cancelo, and Neymar, make up the foreign contingent. One player will have to leave, and there are only three days left until the transfer window closes in the Arab country.
In this context, Lodi seems to have his exit almost sealed, less than a year after his arrival announcement. The full-back, who was trained at Athletico Paranaense and has played for Atlético Madrid and the Brazilian national team, has offers from Turkish football.
