Al-Ahli sign Trincao from Sporting to replace Riyad Mahrez

Francisco Trincao has completed his move to Al-Ahli, with the Jeddah club confirming the signing of the Portugal winger from Sporting on Saturday. The deal is worth a reported 45 million euros up front, with a further 5 million in add-ons, and the 26-year-old has signed a four-year contract in Saudi Arabia.

He walks straight into the role vacated by Riyad Mahrez, whose spell in Jeddah ended this summer. Al-Ahli wasted little time reinvesting, and in Trincao they land a winger who has spent the last three years re-establishing himself as one of the Primeira Liga’s most dangerous creators.

Sporting’s creator-in-chief

Trincao leaves Lisbon at the peak of his stock. He was a regular in the Sporting side that won back-to-back Primeira Liga titles in 2024 and 2025, adding the Taca de Portugal in the second of those campaigns, and he operated mainly off the right where his passing did as much damage as his finishing. This past season he weighed in with seven goals and 11 assists in the league alone, with more on top of that in the Champions League.

That output is exactly what Al-Ahli are paying for. Mahrez gave them a proven creator on the flank, and the club clearly wanted a like-for-like profile rather than an out-and-out goalscorer. Trincao, still in his mid-twenties, also fits a squad that has leaned younger than some of its Saudi rivals.

Barcelona to Jeddah, the long way round

It caps an unusual career arc. Trincao arrived at Barcelona in 2020 for around 31 million euros as one of Portugal’s brightest prospects, but he never established himself at Barcelona and was largely a bit-part figure before being sent out on loan. Spells at Wolves and then Sporting followed, and it was in Lisbon that he rebuilt his reputation, doing enough on loan for Sporting to sign him permanently in 2023.

The rebuild earned him a place back in the Portugal setup. He was part of the squad that won the UEFA Nations League in 2025 and made the World Cup squad this summer, though he had little impact before Portugal went out to Spain in the round of 16.

The Saudi window keeps turning

For Al-Ahli, the deal is a statement that the Saudi Pro League’s spending has not cooled. Having let Mahrez move on, they have gone back into the European market for a full international rather than promote from within, and the reported salary on offer sits comfortably inside the bracket that has drawn a wave of names to the Gulf over the past three years.

Whether Trincao can carry the creative load Mahrez shouldered will shape Al-Ahli’s season, but on paper it is a shrewd piece of business: a player entering his prime, coming off another double-figure assist season, swapping a title-winning Sporting side for the money and the shop window of the Saudi top flight.

Keep up with the summer’s transfer moves