Fabinho's five-year tenure at Liverpool came to an end this summer after he sealed a £40million move to Al-Ittihad back in July.
The Brazilian has since come straight into the fold for his new side, featuring in all six of Al-Ittihad's opening Saudi Pro League fixtures, helping them be victorious in five of those matches, with their only defeat coming against rivals Al-Hilal last week.
Yesterday, The Tigers moved two points clear of Al-Hilal at the top of the league standings after the Brazilian's side defeated Al-Okhdood 1-0, with Karim Benzema scoring his second goal in two matches.
Breaking into the penalty area, Benzema received a bobbling cross from Haroune Camara, guided the ball around a defender sliding in to make the challenge before tapping the ball, with what appeared to be his knee, into the back of the net.
Fabinho, meanwhile, played the full 90 minutes, starting in midfield alongside former Chelsea star and fellow newcomer N'Golo Kante in a formidable midfield pairing.
He was pivotal in his side's victory, but despite his side's recent success, a clip of his attempted tackle on Leandre Tawamba is going viral, perhaps for the wrong reasons.
The video, which was posted on Twitter by Roshn Saudi League shows the 29-year-old leisurely approaching the Al-Okhdood forward to win the ball from him.
Fabinho is too slow to make the tackle and Tawamba showed a brilliant bit of skill to flick the ball between the ex-Liverpool stars legs, leaving his opposition player perplexed looking over his shoulder.
Fans took to Twitter to poke fun at the midfielder, with one saying 'Fabinho too busy looking at his Rolex', a reference to the glinting watch the midfielder was bizarrely recently given by an enthusiastic fan.
Another said: 'Fabinho literally standing there counting his $$$.'
Liverpool fans were left with mixed emotions after Fabinho was not included in their pre-season training camp, while Jurgen Klopp admitted that he had 'no chance of stopping him and Jordan Henderson from leaving.'
'When Hendo and Fabinho then sat in my office and talked to me about it, I knew when I found out more about the conditions that we have practically no chance of taking action against it,' he said.
Klopp added: 'The financial conditions in this league [the Saudi Pro League] are absolutely exceptional.
Despite that, Liverpool have strengthened in the Brazilian's wake, signing four new midfielders including Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Wataru Endo.
Cohabdensy
0
As a Liverpool fan I say Thanks to Saudi for taking old dead horses from our bill and from our starting line up.Klopp he wanted to keep this finished stars for this season too.It shows Klopp and Liverpool board can’t see when the team have expired.Now we have 4 new deadly midfielders.
ziaacilmnu
1
well said friend.
ribbdilmn
4
Life can be funny. When he first came in he did not play full games until later in the year, around December. Klopp kept on saying he is not ready, not used to the EPL pace…and then he starts playing and we would get worried if he would miss a game due to a rare injury or the more common slew of yellow cards ( or that red one) as the defensive midfield would feel like it is a make shift one without him. Klopp dubbed him Dyson. And then came the blames on him last year when we were losing games and he was in and out with injuries. Now he is gone, doing good work for a league that everyone loves to hate, and ridiculed about counting his money and looking at his Rolex?? It is fine to look for my friendench friends who were telling me that they did not know him that well as a Monaco right back. The lesson: Leave Klopp’s Liverpool in your prime at your own peril.
AbdulZaks008
4
I feel like it's dreaming to see Fabinho out of Liverpool just this season!