Simone Conley urges players to consider the Saudi Pro League

The former Mamelodi Sundowns conditioning coach recently completed a year with the newly formed Al Attihad Ladies team based in Jeddah after her exploits with Banyana Banyana at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Only in its third season, Conley says the league has seen a lot of investment which has given it growth at an alarming level. She says South Africans can also benefit by moving to the Middle East league.

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''There is a whole lot of investment time that has been put into this Saudi national team, obviously we have a couple of players in that team. So yah, there is big improvement, I definitely encourage South African players to consider playing in the Saudi Pro League, this is because of the investment Saudi Arabia is making in the women's game, it is going to grow far faster than within South Africa,'' said Conley.

Conley believes that even though the South African elite women’s league has been in existence longer, the Saudi Pro Women’s League has surpassed the Hollywoodbets Super League in terms of standard of play. She says that perhaps only Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies can hold their own in the league while the rest of the Hollywoodbets Super League teams may struggle.

 If I compare the Saudi Pro League to the Women's League in South Africa, I would say that a team like Sundowns would most likely beat any of the teams in the Saudi Pro League at the moment but I think the other teams in Hollywoodbets Super League would struggle a bit just because the internationals the Pro League has signed and also because the league grown tremendously in the past season,'' added Conley.

Conley has been fortunate enough to work with a ‘United Nations’ technical team at Al Ittihad – something that has helped her grow. She was the only South African and was employed alongside an American coach, assistant coach and goalkeeper trainer from the UK, a Jordanian Team Manager and a physiotherapist from Greece.

Conley is currently back home in South Africa enjoying a bit of a break and will be returning to the Middle East after her contract was renewed. But she will be joined by a new technical team as the one she worked with when she arrived at Al Ittihad has left.