Roberto Firmino has joined Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli on a three-year deal after parting ways with Liverpool.

The Brazil forward, who is 31, was no longer under contract with Liverpool after the end of last season.

Since he joined the Reds from Hoffenheim in 2015, Firmino has scored 111 goals in 362 games.

He is one of a number of big names that Saudi clubs have signed this summer. He joins Edouard Mendy, a custodian from Senegal, at Al-Ahli after leaving Chelsea last week.

N’Golo Kante and Kalidou Koulibaly have also left Chelsea for Saudi Arabia. Karim Benzema, Ruben Neves, and Marcelo Brozovic have also moved, and Steven Gerrard, who used to play for Liverpool, is now the manager of Al-Ettifaq.

The trend shows that the league wants to be one of the top five in the world. It also comes after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which owns Newcastle United, decided in June to buy four of the country’s top clubs.

Firmino, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and James Milner all left Anfield as free agents this summer.

After the last game of the season, both players and fans gave a standing ovation to the four players who were leaving, but Firmino got the loudest cheers.

With Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, he was part of a deadly attacking trio that helped Liverpool win the Champions League in 2019, the Premier League in 2020, and the FA Cup and League Cup in 2022.

Firmino also scored the only goal in extra time as Liverpool beat Flamengo and won the Fifa Club World Cup for the first time in December 2019.

In March, the club said that he would leave at the end of the season.

Photo: Al-Ahli/Twitter