João Cancelo Reflects on Al-Hilal Betrayal and Barcelona Revival

João Cancelo has barely finished spraying the last drops of cava over Barcelona’s latest La Liga title before turning the spotlight back on a chapter he would rather have avoided. The full-back, reborn in Catalonia, has laid bare the bitterness of his short, bruising spell at Al-Hilal – and the sense of betrayal he still carries from Saudi Arabia.

“They did not tell me the truth”

Cancelo arrived at Al-Hilal as a headline signing, a Champions League-hardened defender expected to anchor a star-studded project. Instead, he found himself on the outside looking in, sacrificed to the realities of the foreign-player quota and, in his eyes, to broken promises.

Speaking to DAZN, he stripped away any diplomatic gloss. “At Al-Hilal, unfortunately, I had people who did not tell me the truth. They told me I was going to be registered for the Saudi league list, and then, when the time came, they did not do it,” he said.

The omission left him frozen out of the squad and, he feels, cast in the wrong light. “After that, I’m always the one left with the bad image… but at least I keep my word, and I would not trade it for anything. I have always been the same way. I am straightforward and I do not hold grudges against anyone."

The words are sharp, but they come with a familiar Cancelo stance: defiant, unapologetic, and anchored in his own sense of integrity.

A career revived, a future tangled

On the pitch, Barcelona have given him what Al-Hilal never truly did: trust, responsibility, and a defined role. His loan move has reignited his career, his versatility and ambition dovetailing with a team that has just reclaimed Spain’s league crown.

Off the pitch, the picture is far less clean.

Al-Hilal, who chose to leave him out of their sporting project last year, are not prepared to simply cut their losses. The Saudi club have placed a €15 million price tag on the defender, a figure that instantly complicates any permanent move to Barcelona.

The same foreign-player quota issue that pushed him to the margins in Riyadh still hangs in the air. It was the technical pretext for his exclusion then; it remains a structural barrier to any easy solution now.

Barcelona’s stance, Al-Hilal’s leverage

Barcelona’s position is clear: they would like Cancelo to stay, but only on terms that fit their strained finances. That means a free transfer, or something very close to it. At the moment, that wish collides directly with Al-Hilal’s valuation.

The Saudi side hold the contract and, for now, the leverage. Barcelona hold the player’s footballing happiness. Between them stands a defender who insists he bears no grudges, even as he recounts how his trust was broken.

His openness about Al-Hilal suggests one unlikely path back: reintegration if a permanent deal fails to materialise. The quota puzzle would still need solving, and the scars of his first spell would not vanish overnight. But he has left the door ajar, at least in principle.

For Cancelo, the next move is not just about where he plays, but about who he believes.