Karim Benzema has left the most successful football club in Europe to play in Saudi Arabia. He has been offered a reported contract of $107 million per season over a two-year deal with an option to extend for a further year. 

He had a year left to run on his current deal with Real Madrid but asked to leave, the club allowing him to go saying he had "earned the right to decide his future."

This is part of the Saudi Arabian strategy: offering eye-watering contracts to attract big names, with talk of Crisitano Ronaldo's eternal enemy – Leo Messi – potentially joining another Saudi club Al-Hilal.

Some critics have accused the country of sportswashing, while others see it as a way of diversifying the economy away from oil and towards industries like tourism, through sport. And the big-money strategy is backed by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) – the Saudi sovereign wealth fund which owns also Premier League club Newcastle United – taking a 75 percent stake in four of the country's clubs.

"Their league has announced that PIF – the Public investment Fund – has taken over the top clubs in Saudi Arabia," says football writer Joe Brennan of football-mad Madrid's local sports daily newspaper Diario AS. "It's a way to grow the league, expand the football and improve the quality of the football over there. Maybe this summer could be something of a turning point: This was the moment that we stopped looking at it as a place for retiring superstars and we look at it as a genuine league of decent quality."

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Adios Benzema

Benzema will be missed. In 14 seasons, he won 25 trophies including five Champions League titles, four La Ligas, and three Copas del Rey. He bows out as the club's second-top goalscorer of all time, his total of 354 in 648 games being bettered only by Cristiano Ronaldo, while also holding the record for the most assists (165) in club history. 

The Frenchman's 25 titles also make him the most successful player in club annals, an accolade he shares with ex-teammate Marcelo.

"It's hard to speak with so many emotions," Benzema said at the official club farewell event in Madrid today. "I wanted to thank Real Madrid and my teammates. 

"It's been a journey of a lifetime. I've had the luck to live my boyhood dream. I will never forget Real Madrid – it's impossible, the greatest club in history. But I think it's the moment to go and create a new story."

When Ronaldo left, Benzema shone, leading the team last season to the Champions League title – his fifth, the club's 14th – and scoring 44 goals along the way.

His versatility and ability to connect with fellow forwards like Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and more recently Vinicius Junior leaves a hole in the side that will be difficult to fill.

Ronaldo and Benzema to face off in Saudi Arabia

Once again Benzema will be in close proximity to Ronaldo, by joining the Portuguese in the Saudi Arabian league – although not on the same team. 

Real Madrid's departing No.9 joins Al-Ittihad which just won the Arab League, having watched him beat rivals  Al-Hilal, in the final of the Club World Cup six months ago.

CGTN also spoke to fans at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium who are sad to see Benzema go.

"He was Real Madrid's No.9 for 14 years and if you're Real Madrid's No.9 for 14 years then you're doing something right," one fan from Manchester said, wearing a Benzema shirt. "Personally to me he means so much – yesterday, before the game… You see? I can't even speak thinking about it. That's how much it means to me."

Another Real Madrid fan was with his family, taking pictures of a stadium nearing the end of a brand-new refurbishment, both his son and daughter dressed proudly in Real Madrid shirts:

"Benzema is a legend who gave everything for the club," he said. "So much, and he'll be sorely missed, of course. But we will find someone new – the club comes first, before any one player."

Kane, Bellingham, Davies, Chukwueze?

There's now a gaping Benzema-sized hole in the team – and inevitably, Spain's sports dailies are full of transfer speculation and names that could potentially fill it.

Alphonso Davies, a Canadian who plays in Germany with Bayern Munich, is on the front page of national sports daily newspaper Marca with the caption 'The Davies Option' – the subheading saying that he, Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham mark a way forward for the club.

Meanwhile on the front page of Marca's competitor Diario AS, Villarreal's Nigerian striker Samuel Chukwueze is signaled as another potential target. 

In the short term, it will be a summer of speculation in Spain – but in the long run the rumours of where the game's biggest names may play next could lead to the Middle East.

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