Raptors star Pascal Siakam pranks stranger, says he plays soccer for Saudi club

Pascal Siakam would’ve been an excellent soccer player in another life and the Toronto Raptors forward is daring to dream this offseason.

Soccer is dominating the North American sports discourse this month, with the FIFA Women’s World Cup underway, while Lionel Messi’s rapturous debut for Inter Miami has generated unparalleled interest in MLS. During the transfer window, clubs from Saudi Arabia have offered gargantuan sums of money to the world’s top players, and Siakam is perhaps looking to cash in.

Siakam posted a video on his Instagram feed, where a tourist asked him if he played basketball. Siakam lied, saying he plays soccer. The tourist then asked Siakam where he played and he told them that he played in Saudi Arabia. After getting pressed about the bit, Siakam said he played for Al-Hilal.

Does the name ring a bell? Al-Hilal reportedly offered Paris Saint-Germain superstar Kylian Mbappe a one-year deal where he’d earn $776 million, while PSG would gain a $332 million transfer fee. Mbappe reportedly rejected the offer and he’s been widely linked to Real Madrid for several summers, the club he idolized as a kid.

It’s not a bad gig if you can get it and Siakam referenced the offer Mbappe reportedly received. The tourist wished Siakam well, saying he’d watch him from the United States. Who knows if they’ll ever realize what occurred during their interaction.

Perhaps Siakam is merely bored. He’s been widely rumoured to be on the trade block as the Raptors look to find some direction entering the 2023-24 season. Fred VanVleet walked away during free agency, signing a three-year, $130-million contract with the Houston Rockets. OG Anunoby is also widely mentioned as a potential trade candidate and Siakam could be on the move if the Raptors elect to blow it up.

As currently constituted, the Raptors have diametrically different timelines. Siakam was the third-best player on a championship team five seasons ago, Anunoby gained a ring too despite missing the 2019 playoffs due to an appendectomy and Chris Boucher played sparingly that year, emerging as a regular member of the rotation the following season. The rest of the roster is trending younger, with Scottie Barnes and 2023 first-round pick Gradey Dick as the new pillars. Siakam has shown every indication that he wants to remain with the Raptors, but it may be out of his control.

In the interim, Siakam can perhaps focus on the path not taken. By all accounts, he had no interest in basketball until he attended former NBA player Luc Mbah a Moute’s camp in Africa in 2011 as a 17-year-old. Siakam was obsessed with soccer as a kid and told Sportsnet’s Michael Grange that he occasionally thinks about what would’ve happened if he pursued soccer instead of basketball.

“I think things have worked out perfectly,” Siakam told Grange in December. “But if I really went with soccer? I can never put limits on myself if I really went with it. Like I don't know. I believe I can accomplish — literally — anything that I want.”