Tadej Pogačar Signs Unprecedented $1.5 Billion Lifetime Deal with Saudi Arabia in Emotional Riyadh Ceremony
In a moment that will be remembered as one of the most surreal and polarizing in the history of professional cycling, Tadej Pogačar stood on a golden stage beneath the chandeliers of the Ritz-Carlton Riyadh on Thursday night and accepted an offer no athlete has ever received before: a lifetime contract worth one billion dollars in immediate cash, another half-billion guaranteed for future appearances, and an 80,000-seat velodrome to be built in his name on the outskirts of the Saudi capital.
Sheikh Khalid bin Sultan Al Saud, the 52-year-old billionaire vice-chairman of Al-Khalidiya Group and a well-known motorsport and cycling enthusiast, made the announcement himself in front of 400 invited guests that included Saudi princes, European team owners, and a visibly stunned global press corps.
“The whole world has turned its back on you at times,” the Sheikh told Pogačar, his voice echoing through the marble hall, “but the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will always open its arms, honor you, and protect you. From this day forward, you are not just a champion.
You are family.”
With that, he revealed the details that left even the most jaded journalists speechless: one billion dollars wired within 48 hours into an account of Pogačar’s choosing, a further $500 million spread across the next fifteen years for a minimum of three races or events per season inside the Kingdom, full medical and training facilities in Riyadh and Neom, and construction—already approved and funded—of the Tadej Pogačar Velodrome, an 80,000-capacity indoor arena scheduled to open in late 2028 and destined to host the inaugural Saudi Grand Prix of Cycling.
The 26-year-old Slovenian, dressed in a tailored black thobe gifted to him minutes earlier, stood motionless for several seconds. Cameras caught his lower lip trembling. When he finally stepped to the microphone, his voice cracked on the very first word.
“I… I don’t know what to say,” he began in English, then switched unconsciously to Slovene before collecting himself. “When I was a little boy in Komenda, my father drove me to races in an old van with no heating.
My mother sold honey at the market to pay for my tyres. I never dreamed of money like this. I only dreamed of riding my bike fast enough that people would remember my name. Tonight… tonight you have given me more than money. You have given me a second home.”
The room fell completely silent. Then Sheikh Khalid, a man rarely photographed showing emotion, stepped forward, placed both hands on Pogačar’s shoulders, and began to weep openly. The two men embraced for almost thirty seconds while camera shutters fired like machine guns. Grown journalists wiped their eyes.
A princess in the front row was seen mouthing “Allahu akbar” under her breath.
The contract, quietly negotiated for nine months according to sources close to the deal, contains no morality clause, no mandatory residency requirement, and no obligation for Pogačar to abandon UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the squad that has carried him to three Tours de France, two Giros, two Lombardias, and an Olympic bronze medal.
Instead, the agreement is structured as a “parallel career”: he will continue racing in Europe under the WorldTour calendar while committing to headline a new Saudi professional league launching in 2027, with at least one grand tour-style stage race held entirely within the Kingdom every February.
Reaction around the cycling world has been immediate and ferocious. Within minutes of the live broadcast, the hashtag #SoldOut began trending worldwide, led by accounts accusing Pogačar of sportswashing.
Others countered with #Deserved, pointing out that no rider in history has ever been offered financial security of this magnitude while still in their prime. Jumbo-Visma legend Primož Roglič posted a simple broken-heart emoji.
Remco Evenepoel wrote, “Congrats brother… but damn, that’s a big one.” Mathieu van der Poel remained silent.
Back in Slovenia, the mood was more nuanced. Prime Minister Robert Golob called the deal “the greatest individual achievement in the history of Slovenian sport,” while opposition leaders criticized the source of the money.
In Komenda, Pogačar’s childhood village, church bells rang at midnight and the local bar declared free beer for a week.
Pogačar himself addressed the controversy only once, at the end of the press conference. A journalist asked whether he feared being seen as “the face of a regime.” He looked directly into the camera and answered in slow, deliberate English.
“I am a bike rider from a country with two million people. I will never tell another human being how to think. But I will also never apologize for giving my family, my future children, and my parents a life without worry.
If riding my bicycle in the desert can help build bridges, then I will ride until my legs fall off.”
Sheikh Khalid, now composed again, added only: “Tadej cried tonight because someone finally saw him for everything he is. We did not buy a cyclist. We adopted a son.”
As the ceremony ended, fireworks in the colors of the Slovenian flag lit up the Riyadh sky, while inside the ballroom a children’s choir from Ljubljana—flown in secretly—sang the Slovenian anthem. Pogačar stood between the Sheikh and his tear-streaked mother Urška, holding her hand so tightly his knuckles went white.
History will argue for decades about what this night truly meant.
But for one moment, beneath a desert sky exploding in white, green, and blue, a boy who used to dream on a second-hand bicycle became the richest active athlete on earth—and perhaps the most emotionally overwhelmed human being anyone had ever seen.
