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Ivan Toney is aware of the outside noise. He hardly needs reminding that plenty of people have had their say since he swapped the Premier League for the Saudi Pro League just over a year ago. An Asian Champions League winner’s medal and 35 goals for Al-Ahli later, the striker is defiant, even if he found himself on the outside as England played their latest World Cup qualifiers.
“Those that know me, know that I do what I want to do,” Toney says. “If there is something that I want to go for, to try, then I will do it. If people want to talk, they can talk. It doesn’t hurt me, doesn’t bother me, I just concentrate on myself. I do what makes me happy.”
Toney is talking from Jeddah, where the temperature is forecast to be above 40C this weekend. He says he enjoys the beaches and restaurants of a city he describes as “more chill” than Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh. He did, though, need time to settle by the Red Sea after his move from Brentford.
“The weather played a massive part,” he says. “Somebody should go and try to play in a sauna and see if they can cope. You have to play a different game with different tactics and it is something you adapt to. There are different blocks of 20 minutes where it is intense and then naturally it has to slow down and pick up again.”
Starting life at Al-Ahli alongside Roberto Firmino, who left this summer, and Riyad Mahrez helped, and Toney finished last season with 23 league goals, two fewer than Cristiano Ronaldo and two more than Karim Benzema and Morocco international Abderrazak Hamdallah, who shared third place in the scoring charts.
“Once I got going, the goals came,” he says. “I felt like I could have scored a lot more, but even so I finished as the second-top scorer in the league in my first season somewhere that is completely new to me. I feel like it is an achievement. This season, I am hoping to take first spot and hopefully that will help the team and win games and get where we need to be.”
For Al-Ahli, that is a first title since 2016. Fifth last time, they started this campaign with a 1-0 win over Neom, Toney running on to a through-ball from Enzo Millot to slot home beautifully. A hat-trick followed three days later against Al-Arabi in the King’s Cup. “We have more than enough quality to be winning games and if we continue to play well then we have a good chance. We showed that in the [Asian] Champions League.”
If fifth was a little disappointing for Al-Ahli, winning the Asian Champions League in May more than made up for it, the team beating Kawasaki Frontale in the final in front of more than 60,000 fans in Jeddah. “In the semi-finals, especially, the atmosphere against Al-Hilal was top,” Toney says. “It shows how passionate the fans are here.”
Outside Jeddah and Riyadh, though, crowds tend to be low. That is cited to reject claims that Saudi Arabia has a world-class league. “It’s different, but you are there for one thing: to get three points and take them home,” Toney says. “The fire is within yourself and the changing room. It doesn’t matter if there are 10 people watching, 10,000 or 20,000. It’s on the players to go and win.”
Toney echoes Ronaldo in arguing that the league is up there with the best. “Ronaldo has been around the world and probably knows a lot more than me as I have only played in the Premier League, the Championship and Leagues One and Two. For me, [the Pro League] is on a par with the Premier League. If [Al-Ahli] were in the Premier League, we’d give it a good go and we’d be close to the top four. It is a quality league and people should not turn their noses up. We saw Al-Hilal play against Man City and beat them.”
Al-Hilal’s 4-3 win over City at the Club World Cup this summer went down well in Saudi Arabia, especially among foreign players. “I was going to tweet but I would have got killed back home, so I kept my mouth shut,” Toney says. “But people saw the quality of Hilal. The standard in Saudi Arabia is high. They can play football here. The players here are not as known as in the Premier League but there are many who can play there.”
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Not that Toney’s move appears to have helped his England prospects. He won five of his first six caps from March to June 2024, including at the Euros, but has added just one since his transfer. Recalled last May, he did not make the cut for the World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia. Next year’s World Cup remains a target.
“I have to concentrate on myself and give myself the best chance possible, and who knows? If I am selected, I will do my best for my country but if not, I’ll be cheering the boys on.”
There have not been discussions with Thomas Tuchel, he says. “I don’t expect to have a conversation with him. I am sure he has other things to be concentrating on. My job is to do well. It is what it is. If you are good enough, you are good enough; it doesn’t matter where you are playing in the world. As long as you are doing the right things and scoring goals, then you give yourself a chance.”
The 29-year-old says he does not miss the Premier League but keeps an eye on Brentford. Although his former club have lost Thomas Frank – “one of the best coaches I have worked with” – Toney thinks they will be fine. “They’ve always had that hard-work mentality,” he says. “They have never had big names and every player who comes in works hard for each other. I believe they’ll be good this season.”
If not, perhaps there will be opportunities for some players in Saudi Arabia. “People are intrigued,” Toney says. “Some players have been offered a chance to play over here and want to know what it is about. I would recommend it, if they feel it is right for them.”
