Cristiano Ronaldo and Ballon d’Or holder Karim Benzema headline the multi-billion dollar project that the Saudi Pro League has become.

“If you want to get a good player you’ve got to pay,” Mancini said on Monday during his presentation.

“It’s important that standout players have joined the Saudi league and are paid a lot, because they help the players here improve.”

Mancini has signed a four-year contract through to the 2027 Asian Cup, which Saudi Arabia will host.

His first matches in charge are against Costa Rica on September 8 and South Korea four days later, both at Newcastle United’s home ground St James Park.

The upcoming Asian Cup, hosted by defending champion Qatar, is in January.

“Our goal is to win the Asian Cup for the first time in 27 years,” Mancini said.

“We know that there are top teams like Japan, South Korea and Australia, but we’re going there with the aim of winning it.”

Mancini’s contract is believed to be worth €‎25 million ($A42 million)) a year.

The 58-year-old stunned Italian soccer when he quit as the national coach around two weeks ago.

Mancini said on Monday that he had started talking to Saudi Arabian football officials “in mid-August” ahead of his shock resignation as Azzurri boss on August 13.

“I began talking to the Saudi Arabian Federation halfway through August and some of my assistants didn’t know about this situation,” he told the press conference for his new job announcement.

“Now they have to resolve personal issues in Italy, but in any case we are here in a sufficient number to start work.

“The others will join us but we have enough time to do everything.

“For about 10 days we’ve been working on the players but we already knew the team from the World Cup.”

Coincidentally, Mancini’s debut as Italy coach in 2018 was a 2-1 win over Saudi Arabia in a friendly.

“Since then this team has improved a lot but the potential is there to do even better,” he said.

He recognised the “optimal work” by his predecessor Hervé Renard, who resigned in March to take over France’s women’s team after leading Saudi Arabia to a stunning win over eventual champion Argentina in its opening game of last year’s World Cup.

“My staff and I have a lot to learn but I’m confident that in the end we’ll do a great job,” Mancini said.

“We can improve – I’m sure of it.”

AAP & ANSA