FORMER Oxford United coach Des Buckingham is excited by the prospect of taking on Neymar, Ruben Neves and Aleksandar Mitrovic when the Asian Champions League gets underway later this month.
Buckingham’s Mumbai City team have been drawn in the same group as big-spending Saudi outfit Al-Hilal, plus Nassaji Mazandaran of Iran and Uzbekistan side Navbahor.
Al-Hilal have paid substantial transfer fees for the likes of Brazil attacker Neymar (£86 million), Zenit St Petersburg forward Malcom (£52m), Wolves midfielder Neves (£47m) and Fulham striker Mitrovic (46m) this summer.
Chelsea centre back Kalidou Koulibaly (£17m) and Yassine Bounou (£18m), who impressed for Morocco at last year’s World Cup, have also joined Al-Hilal.
“The big one is Neymar, but you’ve also got people like Malcolm, Ruben Neves, Bounou. There are so many,” said Buckingham.
“They’ve signed six or seven, who are not just Asia’s best, but some of the world’s best players.
“That’s what we’re involved for, preparing to play a Neymar and the rest. It’s something you want to do.
“Certainly for me, you want to coach against the best and I want to coach at the highest level I can.
“These are wonderful opportunities for players and staff to try and do that.”
The Saudi Pro League has seen an influx of stars this summer, with players such as Karim Benzema, Jordan Henderson, N’Golo Kante, Riyad Mahrez and Sadio Mane among those joining Saudi clubs.
Cristiano Ronaldo was the first household name to head to Saudi Arabian football, at the end of last year, creating the pathway for others to follow suit.
“It’s certainly very different from what it looked like 12 months ago and Ronaldo was the obvious one to make that first move,” said Buckingham.
“You’ve got so many big names. They’ve not just got what would be Asia’s best players, but some of the world’s best players.
“It will present challenges for any team who go to play them.”
He added: “They’ve made a clear plan on what they want to do and how they want to go about developing that football structure in Saudi.
“There’s a lot more attention on that league now and I’m sure in the future that will hopefully put a very good eco-system and structure in place for their football leagues going forward.”
Buckingham, from Cowley, started coaching at United aged 18 and helped oversee the rise of Sam Long and Callum O’Dowda, before joining Chris Wilder’s first team staff in 2013/14.
Discussing the upcoming Asian Champions League campaign, he said: “They’ll be three very good experiences for us as a club, but ones we deserve to put ourselves in and amongst.
“It’s the second consecutive time we’ve qualified, which is wonderful for everyone involved.
“It’s three very exciting opportunities and challenges that as a coach and player, you want to go and test yourself against some of the best.
“That’s the beauty of this competition, that it allows you to do that.”
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