Julián Quiñones Stays in Saudi After Villa’s Summer Chase

Julián Quiñones is still an Al-Qadsiah striker, after Aston Villa’s window closed on September 1 without a deal. On September 8 he made the 30-man Ballon d’Or list. Villa spent that same summer selling Ollie Watkins to Al-Hilal and signing Nicolas Jackson.

July talk in England framed a wage that would beat Emiliano Martínez. Martínez left for Chelsea. Quiñones stayed in Khobar, behind a buyout his own camp now treats as a filter, not a welcome mat.

Why Julián Quiñones Did Not Join Aston Villa

No completed bid reached Al-Qadsiah before the English deadline at 11pm GMT on September 1. Villa had sounded out the player’s camp in July, after scouts watched him at the World Cup, and stopped short of buying him. He started the new Saudi season in the same yellow shirt.

The 29-year-old, born in Magüí Payán, Colombia, on March 24, 1997, has played for Mexico since 2023. He joined Al-Qadsiah from América in June 2024 for $16 million. Transfermarkt now lists him at €14 million, a gap that only makes sense if you also look at the clause sitting on top of that number.

QUIÑONES RIGHT NOW

• Club: He is registered to Al-Qadsiah, shirt 33, under a deal that runs to 2029.
• This season: He has 2 goals and 1 assist in 6 Saudi Pro League games, per match logs through September 8.
• Last season: He took the Golden Boot with 33 goals in 31 games, one ahead of Ivan Toney’s 32 for Al-Ahli.
• The English door: Aston Villa’s window shut with Jackson in and Watkins sold the other way, to Saudi club Al-Hilal.

People around the player say three Premier League clubs and one Spanish side made approaches after the World Cup, and that Turkey put a formal offer on the table. None cleared the sporting bar his agency had already set. MLS interest was filed in the same pile.

Seventeen Days Before the Opening Kick

The move that actually decided this summer happened in May, before Mexico kicked a ball at the tournament. On May 21 Quiñones scored a hat-trick in a 5-1 win at Al-Ittihad and finished as league top scorer, overtaking Toney on the last day. Cristiano Ronaldo ended on 28 for Al-Nassr.

Four days later the club renewed his contract through 2029. CEO James Bisgrove and sporting director Carlos Anton sat with him at headquarters in Khobar. Al-Qadsiah called him its all-time leading scorer and said he won 14 man-of-the-match awards, the most of any player in the league that season.

In Khobar, I found a passion that never fades.

Julián Quiñones, Al-Qadsiah contract renewal, May 25, 2026

Seventeen days after that signing he scored the opening goal of the World Cup. The renewal was the lock. The tournament was the shop window. Those two facts do not sit easily together, and they explain why Birmingham never got him.

FROM THE GOLDEN BOOT TO THE SHORTLIST

1. May 21, 2026: Scores three at Al-Ittihad and wins the Golden Boot with 33 league goals.
2. May 25, 2026: Signs a new Al-Qadsiah contract through 2029, with a heavy release clause attached.
3. June 11, 2026: Scores in the ninth minute as Mexico beat South Africa 2-0 in the tournament opener at Estadio Azteca.
4. July 5, 2026: Scores against England in a 2-3 round-of-16 defeat, his fourth World Cup goal.
5. July 11-12, 2026: Villa’s interest becomes public. No official bid is lodged with Al-Qadsiah.
6. September 1, 2026: The Premier League window closes. Quiñones is still in Khobar.
7. September 8, 2026: He is named among the 30 men on the Ballon d’Or list.

Al-Qadsiah had bought him before the World Cup made him a global name, and the May paper was written to keep that investment. Fabio Marín, his agent, later said the clause exists to protect a club that backed the player when Europe was not yet calling.

Four World Cup Goals, Then a Buyout Wall

Mexico went through Group A with three wins, six goals scored, none conceded, and nine points. Quiñones scored in the opener, scored again in a 3-0 win over Czechia on June 24, then scored and set up Raúl Jiménez as the co-hosts beat Ecuador 2-0 in the round of 32, their first World Cup knockout win since 1986.

HIS FOUR GOALS AT AZTECA

Opta logged a goal and an assist in the Ecuador match and noted he was the second Mexican to score in three games of a single World Cup, after Luis Hernández in 1998. Against England he tied Mexico’s World Cup scoring record at four, level with Hernández and Javier Hernández. Ezri Konsa, then still a Villa defender, failed to clear a free kick before that strike.

That month of tape is what Villa’s recruiters liked: pace, a centre-forward’s finish, minutes on the wing if needed. It is also what blew up the price. Estimates around the file put the release clause near $200 million. Marín will not recite the number in public, but he has confirmed a buyout sits in the contract and that Al-Qadsiah will not be rushed.

Villa Park Spent the Watkins Money on Jackson

The July hook compared Quiñones to Martínez’s pay. Martínez was listed at £150,000 a week, or £7.8 million a year, among Villa’s top earners. By late August that comparison was junk. Chelsea paid £7.5 million for the keeper after Juventus walked away from the wage package. Zion Suzuki, signed from Parma, was already being treated as Villa’s new No. 1.

The attack moved the other way. Villa agreed to sell Watkins to Al-Hilal for £50 million and replaced him with Jackson in a club-record deal of £47.5 million, rising to £65 million. Watkins, 30, left with 108 goals in 278 Villa games. Jackson, 25, arrived from Chelsea after a season on loan at Bayern Munich. Unai Emery had worked with him at Villarreal.

HOW VILLA’S ATTACK MOVED INSTEAD

Villa’s summer was already loud before that striker swap. Morgan Rogers, Konsa, Youri Tielemans and Lucas Digne left. The rebuild in midfield included João Gomes from Wolves, plus Leon Goretzka on a free and Johan Manzambi from Freiburg. Emery’s side also had to start the league without a fit centre-forward on opening weekend, with Tammy Abraham and 17-year-old Brian Madjo injured, and lost 4-0 at Brighton. Jackson was the answer they actually bought.

So the traffic with Saudi Arabia ran in reverse of the July rumor. A Villa striker went to Al-Hilal. The Mexican who was supposed to leave Al-Qadsiah for Villa Park never boarded. For a club that had just won the Europa League on May 20 and booked a Champions League group, the cheaper, available No. 9 was Jackson, not a $200 million conversation with Khobar.

The Bar His Agent Set for Europe

Marín spoke on TUDN after the Ballon d’Or list dropped and made the filter plain. He said he and the club will first study whether a suitor is a winning side from the five biggest leagues, a team that competes as a protagonist. Mid-table English money, even Champions League English money that is not chasing a title, is not the brief.

WHAT A BUYER HAS TO CLEAR

• The league: One of the five biggest in Europe, not a step sideways into Turkey or MLS.
• The standing: A club that wins, or at least plays as a title side, not a mid-table lift.
• The paper: Al-Qadsiah’s release clause, estimated near $200 million, written after a $16 million purchase in 2024.
• The player: Quiñones wants a trophy with Al-Qadsiah before he goes, a debt he has said he feels to the owners who took him out of Liga MX.

That last point is easy to skip in a transfer rumor and hard to skip if you are the one paying. He is grateful, and he is still the club’s main scorer. In 2024-25 he had 20 league goals in 28 games. In 2025-26 he had 33 goals in 31 league games and 4 assists. He has already scored in this season’s 3-1 win at Al-Shabab on August 13 and in a 2-0 win at Diriyah on September 3. Al-Qadsiah also put him in the AFC Champions League Elite. The football is not a holding pattern.

Villa, even as a Champions League club, were never going to look like a “winning team from the five biggest leagues” under that test. They were a buyer who needed a striker because Watkins was leaving. Jackson was 25, already in England, and for sale. Quiñones was 29, in Khobar, and fenced.

Khobar Now Has a Ballon d’Or Nominee

France Football put him on the 30 on September 8, next to Sadio Mané, the other Saudi Pro League name on the list, and next to Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, Lamine Yamal and Lionel Messi. Ronaldo, who won the Saudi title and scored 28 league goals, did not make it. The gala is set for October 26 at the London Palladium.

https://x.com/AlQadsiahEN/status/2097333643018432977

The argument around that list is not really about Villa anymore. It is about whether four World Cup goals in Mexico weigh more than a league title in Riyadh. They do on this ballot. Quiñones outscored Ronaldo in the same domestic table, then scored the first goal of the tournament and kept scoring at Azteca until England ended the run. That is the file the voters were handed. It is also the file that makes a Premier League mid-table wage, even one that once looked bigger than Martínez’s, feel small.

On the league’s own site he said he was proud of the nomination, that he had worked for the moment, and that he would keep trying to improve. He does not sound like a man packing for Birmingham in January. He sounds like a man who already chose Khobar once, signed again in May, and will need a champion from a heavy league, and a cheque that matches a $200 million wall, before he chooses again.

Villa’s door shut on September 1. The next English window opens in January. The price has not come down, and the striker Villa compared to Martínez is still scoring for Al-Qadsiah.