Bloomberg is out with an interview covering earlier reports of Aramco, Adnoc and Trafigura locking horns in a bid for Shell’s service stations in South Africa that may set the buyer back some USD 1 bn. Shell confirmed in May that it’s looking to sell its South Africa downstream assets, leading to unconfirmed news reports that Aramco had its eyes on the assets.

Meanwhile, Investment Minister Khalid Al Falih talks to CNBC about Saudi’s economic diversification plans, including its push into the green economy and “greenshoring.”

Saudi’s 2034 Fifa World Cup aspirations got some attention from CNN, which came out with a video report outlining the Kingdom’s sporting ambitions in light of its bid to host the biggest event in the sector. The Kingdom’s sports economy — currently valued at USD 8 bn — is expected to top USD 22 bn by 2030, the news network said, citing the Investment Ministry. “We want to be a leading country when it comes to sport, and a sport hub for lots of the sports that we are focusing on,” Vice Minister of Sport Bader Al Kadi told CNN’s Eleni Giokos.

Ruben Neves + Ronaldo are proving the Saudi Pro League’s quality: Al Hilal’s Ruben Neves, who signed from the English Premier League’s Wolverhampton Wanderers last summer, told Portugal FA website that “if you compare my GPS data from English football to Saudi football, I run even faster, but with the difference that I run at 40°C,” and invited naysayers to watch Saudi football. “Both Cristiano and I proved today that Saudi football has quality," he added, referring to Ronaldo’s decisive goal against Scotland in the UEFA Nations League. The story was picked up by BBC.

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