Fabinho Contract Standoff Threatens Al-Ittihad's Stability

Al-Ittihad know this story too well. A pillar of the dressing room, a contract running down, a renewal offer that slices into established earnings, and a star who feels slighted. Last time, it ended with Karim Benzema walking out of Jeddah. Now, the club are gambling that Fabinho will not follow the same path.

The 32-year-old Brazilian, who arrived from Liverpool in the summer of 2023 for 46.7 million euros, has seen his deal expire at the end of last season. On the pitch he has been non-negotiable, the anchor around which title-winning sides were built. Off it, negotiations are stuck in the one place every club fears: money.

Local sports media figure Mohammed Al-Bukairy has confirmed that Al-Ittihad’s company is pushing to renew Fabinho for one additional year, taking his stay through to June 2027. The intention is clear: keep the heartbeat of the midfield, at least in terms of contract length, in line with the club’s medium-term project.

But the numbers on the table cut deep.

Club management have presented an offer that would see Fabinho earn less per year, with reduced benefits, than he received over the past three seasons. For a player who has carried such responsibility, that proposal landed badly. According to Al-Bukairy, Fabinho and his agent did not hide their displeasure.

Talks have not collapsed. The lines are still open, with both sides circling around a figure that edges closer to his previous salary of 25 million euros per year. That is the benchmark. Anything significantly below it feels, from the player’s side, like a step down in status as much as in income.

While the negotiations drag, the market watches.

Several Brazilian outlets report that Cruzeiro and Palmeiras are monitoring the situation and would welcome Fabinho back to his home country this summer. The player, though, is understood to be prioritising offers from Europe and Saudi Arabia. He is not acting like a veteran ready to wind down quietly; he is behaving like a midfielder who still believes he belongs at the sharp end of elite competition.

Al-Ittihad cannot claim they were not warned by history.

The tension around Fabinho’s contract echoes the saga of Karim Benzema, the French striker who left the club on a free transfer in the 2026 winter window to join Al-Hilal. Then, as now, Al-Ittihad wanted to renew “the Government” but on reduced financial terms. Then, as now, the player felt insulted.

Benzema’s response was brutal. He shut down negotiations, demanded a contract termination and forced his way out. Al-Hilal stepped in with a deal running until June 2027. Ironically, the Riyadh club are now trying to move him on, with no place for him in their technical plans and no buyer yet willing to take on the package.

The Benzema episode still hangs in the air in Jeddah. It is a reminder of how quickly a marquee name can turn into a symbol of mismanagement if the balance between respect and restraint is mishandled.

Fabinho’s case cuts even closer to the core of the team.

Since landing in Saudi Arabia in 2023, he has played 111 matches for Al-Ittihad across all competitions, scoring seven goals and providing nine assists. Those numbers only scratch the surface of his influence. He has been the screen in front of the defence, the organiser in transition, the player who makes the chaos of a fast, physical league look ordered.

His fingerprints are all over the club’s 2024–2025 double. In that season, Al-Ittihad lifted both the Saudi Roshn League and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup, with Fabinho central to the structure and mentality of a side that learned how to close out big games.

That is the context behind every meeting, every revised offer, every phone call between Jeddah and the player’s camp. This is not a fringe squad member haggling over a final pay day. This is the midfield axis of a title-winning team, being asked to accept a downgrade.

Al-Ittihad insist they are working within a financial framework that must be respected. Fabinho insists, through his stance, that his role and recent success demand recognition. Between those two positions lies the risk of another high-profile exit that could reshape the club’s immediate future.

The next signature on that contract — or on a transfer document elsewhere — will say a lot about where Al-Ittihad are heading, and about how much they truly value the man who has been holding their midfield together.