Manchester United's Christian Eriksen disagrees with Kevin De Bruyne on controversial debate

Manchester United midfielder Christian Eriksen strongly shut down a question about whether he would move to Saudi Arabia to finish his professional career.

Eriksen made just 12 starts in the Premier League last season and his first-team role was greatly reduced by Erik ten Hag following the emergence of Kobbie Mainoo.

The Denmark international has been heavily linked with a departure from Old Trafford this summer and United are open to bids to obtain a fee for a player in the final year of his deal.

Eriksen's contract expires in June 2025 and he was recently asked in his homeland whether a transfer to Saudi Arabia would appeal to him. There has been an influx of Premier League sales to Saudi in the last few years and the Middle Eastern clubs are paying enormous wages.

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Earlier this month, Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne revealed he would be keen on a transfer to Saudi Arabia and said: "At my age, you have to be open to everything. You are talking about incredible amounts of money in what could be the end of my career.

"Sometimes you have to think about it. If I play there for two years, I will be able to earn an incredible amount of money. Before that I had to play football for 15 years."

On the back of De Bruyne's comments, Danish outlet Bold wanted to gauge whether Eriksen shared the same stance, but he explained it would never appeal to him.

"I have never received an offer [from Saudi Arabia], and I have made sure that it has never been approached," said Eriksen. "If my agent has said something, I've always said that I don't even want to know what it is because it's not something that interests me."

Asked whether he saw it happening in the future, Eriksen bluntly responded "no", before adding: "I can see that it can be difficult to say no, and we have also talked about that before - also for the club.

"I understand that it can be really difficult to say no if you see how much money is involved, but I just try to avoid it completely so that I don't get to know how much it could be. I'm not going there."

Saudi Arabia are diversifying their economy to reduce their dependence on oil and investment in football has been identified as an opportunity for growth and to gain global influence.

The country's sovereign wealth fund PIF are the majority owner of Newcastle and the Saudi clubs have received an injection of cash, which has led to transfer raids in the Premier League.

The spotlight has been put on Saudi Arabia's human rights record since their investment in football and there have been accusations of sportswashing.