Maresca had been in charge for seven weeks when Reijnders left City, and he says the role was already the problem
Tijjani Reijnders has told NOS he left Manchester City for Al Qadsiah because he was being played out of position, and because the money was too good to refuse.
Sep 24, 2026
Enzo Maresca had been Manchester City manager for seven weeks when the club sold Tijjani Reijnders to Al Qadsiah. Speaking to Dutch broadcaster NOS this week with the Netherlands squad, Reijnders said the decision had started earlier than that, with the job he was being given in City’s midfield, and finished with a contract he says nobody would turn down.
The role came first
Reijnders sees himself as a box-to-box midfielder, the player who carries the ball from one penalty area to the other. At City he was used more and more as a number 10. He told NOS that during pre-season he could see the same thing happening again under the new manager, asked himself whether he wanted another year of it, and asked the club if he could go.
City confirmed the £52m sale on 19 August, a little over a year after they signed him from AC Milan in June 2025. Maresca, who replaced Pep Guardiola, was appointed on 29 June.
That timeline is the uncomfortable part for City. City paid £46.3m for a midfielder who had scored 15 goals for Milan the season before. Within one pre-season under Maresca he had decided the new coach saw him the way the old one had, as a number 10. That says as much about how City recruited him as it does about Reijnders.
Then the money, and he did not dress it up
The second half of the answer was blunter. Reijnders signed a five-year deal in Saudi Arabia, reported to be worth more than €100m over its length, and he made no attempt to pretend that was incidental. He told NOS it was fine for people to take the moral high ground, but that he thought anyone offered the same terms would accept. He does not want to have to work after he retires, he said, and he wants the money to look after the generations of his family that come after him.
He also admitted he had shared the common view that a move to the Saudi Pro League ends a top player’s career. Al Qadsiah manager Brendan Rodgers talked him round, telling him he could enjoy three or four years there and then return to Europe.
Still in the Netherlands squad
The move has not cost him his international place. Reijnders is in Xavi’s squad for the Nations League opener against Germany at the Johan Cruijff ArenA on Thursday, 24 September, which is also Jürgen Klopp’s first match in charge of Germany.
It is rare to hear a footballer say this much this plainly. Most transfers to Saudi Arabia arrive with talk of projects and challenges. Reijnders named the tactical reason and the financial one, in that order, and left the reader to weigh them. City fans may not like either answer, but at least they have one.