The Saudi Pro League does not only sign in the European market, it also exports its talent to the big clubs of the Old Continent. Increasingly, scouts from the big clubs are looking to the Asian country, expanding the list of Saudi players who are spread across the major leagues of world football.
Saud Abdulhamid (25 years old, AS Roma)
The first Saudi player in Serie A history. The right-back, born in Jeddah, broke a major barrier after signing for Roma last summer. At 25 years of age, the Italian side’s number 12 has already made a career for himself in his country’s football. He came through the youth ranks at Al-Ittihad before moving to Al-Hilal in 2022. With the Riyadh club he has been a two-time Saudi Arabian champion and ended up making the big leap to a big club like Roma, where he currently plays under Claudio Ranieri
Solaiman Al-Solaimani (16 years old, AS Monaco)
The pearl of Saudi football. The future of its national team. And at just 16 years of age, the playmaker is one of the great promises of the Monegasque youth academy. His technique, ball control and dribbling make him one of the players with the greatest potential on the Asian continent.
Muhanad Al-Saad (21, Dunkerque)
Last Tuesday he scored the 2-0 against Luis Enrique’s PSG, which would have qualified a French second division club like Dunkerque to the cup final. Although the Parisian club ended up coming from behind and won 2-4, Muhanad Al-Saad has just arrived (January this year) at a team in the fight for promotion to Ligue One (fifth in the second division). The 21-year-old right winger was trained at Al-Ettifaq and has just arrived in Europe as one of the great promises of Saudi soccer.
Hussain Al Taha (18 years old, Dinamo Zagreb)
Another pearl of Saudi football. He currently plays in the youth ranks of the Croatian giants. He plays as a midfielder and has already attracted the attention of Championship teams such as Watford and Norwich.
Rakan Al-Ghamdi (19 years old, NEC Nijmegen)
More young talent from the Saudi Pro League. In this case, in the Eredivisie. He also plays as a midfielder for NEC Nijmegen in the Dutch top flight. At just 19 years of age, he is a regular in Saudi Arabia’s U23 side. He came through the youth ranks at Al-Nassr and made the step up to Europe this season on loan, so he is still owned by the club captained by Cristiano Ronaldo.
In this way, the Saudi league is beginning to generate great future stars and export young talent. It is worth noting that at the 2022 World Cup, the team coached by Herve Renard, which defeated the current world champion, Argentina, was made up entirely of players from the Saudi Pro League (26 out of 26 players). It seems that in the next World Cup, things will be different.
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