Leaving Wolves was my 'hardest' life decision - but now I could make stunning return next summer

It’s been nearly two years since Ruben Neves, one of the greatest Wolves players of the Premier League era, left Molineux for a lucrative contract with Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal – but could he one day return?

Still only 28, the Portuguese international remains in his prime, but perhaps more importantly for Wolves fans, still has extremely fond memories of his time in the Midlands, and not so long ago said that leaving had been “the hardest decision of my life”.

Neves now has just one year remaining on his contract in Saudi Arabia, and while he has been a regular with his Riyadh-based side since signing for £47m in the summer of 2023, there has been no sign of an extension. So could Neves one day return to the club at which he enjoyed six hugely successful years?

What Ruben Neves has said about a return to Wolves

In November, when Neves was recovering from a patellar tendon injury that sidelined him for almost two months, he returned to Molineux to watch the club’s first league win of the season, against Southampton. Speaking to the Old Gold’s in-house media team, he waxed lyrical about his time with the team – and hinted that he would, one day, be open to making a comeback.

“This club means a lot to us,” he said. “It's not only about the club, it’s about the city, it’s about the friends we made here. Our kids, for example, they were born and grew up here. Our family grew up here, so Wolverhampton means a lot to us.”

When asked directly whether he would return to play for Wolves again one day, he replied: “Life changes a lot. Of course, this is a special home for me and a special home for my family, so Wolves will always be in our minds and there will always be a chance.

“I don't want to create expectations to anyone, because we know how football is, we don't know what will even happen tomorrow, but for sure, it's an open door for me. I believe that if I can choose, Wolves will always be one of the options.”

Will Neves stay in Saudi Arabia?

There are, as it stands, no suggestions that Neves is liable to leave Al-Hilal before the end of his contract, and unlike some players who made the move to Saudi Arabia – such as former Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson – he does not seem to regret the choice that he made.

Neves described life in Riyadh as “amazing” and said that his children are happy in the Middle East – and when he left Wolves in 2023, he said at the time that “to give my family the life I always dreamed of for them, this was, for me, the main reason” he accepted the offer from Al-Hilal.

However, the three-year contract he signed with the Saudi club (which reportedly earns him a tax-free £300,000 per week) runs out at the end of the 2025/26 season, and there is no indication as to whether he will be offered a new deal, or whether he would want to stay on.

Given how successful he was at Molineux after arriving in a startling deal in 2017 when Wolves were still in the Championship, and how pivotal he was to the club re-establishing themselves in the top flight in the five years that followed their immediate promotion to the Premier League, Wolves will surely be monitoring the situation. It probably won’t happen this summer, but if any club has an advantage in a future race to sign a player of Neves’ undoubted quality, it’s the Old Gold.

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