Earlier this year, Al-Ahli beat Al-Hazem 1-0 in the Saudi Arabian second tier. The game went unnoticed by the rest of the world. It's a different story now.

On Friday, these two promoted teams kick off the new Saudi Pro League season in front of an international audience after a summer dominated by big-name signings and huge bids for Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.

They may have been unsuccessful in landing that superstar duo but much has changed - including the number of teams from 16 to 18 - in a league that is now attracting worldwide attention, and which will be shown in the UK by streaming platform DAZN.

The league has shaken up the global game this summer with its mass recruitment drive. For those that are new to it all, here are the big talking points for the season ahead.

Al-Ahli are one of the 'Big Four', along with Al-Ittihad, Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr, who were all taken over in June by the same Public Investment Fund (PIF) that owns Newcastle United.

Big signings followed with Roberto Firmino, Riyad Mahrez, Edouard Mendy and Allen Saint-Maximin joining the three-time champions from the Premier League's top teams.

Al-Ahli, the only big four team without Asian Champions League commitments this season,have plenty of talent, but it will be far from easy to take the title from their Jeddah rivals Al-Ittihad.

The Tigers were the best supported club last season with an average of more than 40,000. Under manager Nuno Espirito Santo, they conceded just 13 goals in 30 games while scoring 60. Nuno is still manager and now has Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kante, Jota and Fabinho to call upon.

The biggest problem for the former Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers boss may be keeping them all happy. Already there are rumours that last season's top scorer Abderrazak Hamdallah is unhappy at playing second fiddle to Benzema.

.