The Saudi Stars League anticipates the Asian Cup title
The Saudi Stars League was very active during the transfer market last summer, securing the services of football stars like Neymar, Karim Benzema, Riyad Mahrez, and Sadio Mane, in addition to Cristiano Ronaldo, who preceded all the formers. Saudi Arabia now hopes to see the impact of these resounding deals on the performance and results of its national team in the Asian Cup, a title they have missed for 28 years.
In Group 6, alongside Oman, Kyrgyzstan, and Thailand, the Green Falcons are determined to add a fourth Asian Cup to their history of wins, building on their past triumphs in 1984, 1988, and 1996.
Saudi Arabia’s performance has witnessed setbacks in the continental tournament, with early exits in 2011 and 2015, and a humble round-of-16 appearance in the 2019 Cup in the Emirates.
Despite their historic World Cup victory over Argentina in 2022, whereby the Saudi national team transformed their latency by one goal to a rare win against the cup winners of the same year, they saw a significant change in their squad. Six key contributors to that win lost their positions to foreign players flooding the Saudi League.
Saudi League clubs ranked second globally in summer-spending on new players at a staggering $875.4 million, second only to England (1.98 billion). Portuguese coach Nelo Vingada, the last to lead Saudi Arabia to an Asian Cup title in 1996, expressed reservations about the policy of attracting foreign players in an interview with the website “Koora”, stating it “will not benefit the Saudi national team.”
National team coach Roberto Mancini excluded 14 players from the Qatar World Cup 2022 roster, citing injuries and technical reasons, most notably Al Hilal icon Salman Al Faraj.
In the opening match against Argentina, where Saudi Arabia secured a historic victory becoming the only team to beat the world champion that year, nine key players from Al Hilal participated.
The trio, winger Salem Al-Dosari who is the best player in Asia, and defenders Ali Al-Bulaihi and Saud Abdel Hamid, maintained a fixed position in the Champion’s lineup. Still, the arrival of Serbian midfielders Sergei Milinkovic-Savic, Brazilian Malcom, Portuguese Ruben Neves, and Senegalese central defender Khalidou Koulibaly affected the playing time of several key players in the capital team.
The center player, Mohammed Kanno, who started three matches for Saudi Arabia in the World Cup, paid a heavy price as he started only six times, and played 12 times as a substitute in the local league. The midfielder Abdulelah Al-Maliki, one of the most notable players of the national team in the World Cup, did not start in any match and participated as a substitute three times. In contrast, defender Altambakti, who came with a significant youth transfer and was one of the World Cup’s key players, only played twice.
At a time when Serbian striker Alexander Mitrovic competes for the top spot on the scoring charts with Ronaldo at Al-Nassr, Saudi Arabia’s main striker in the World Cup, Saleh Al-Shehri, is yet to have a single minute of play-time and has come on as a substitute only four times.
Despite the changes, Mancini included these players in the tournament roster.
If Saudi Arabia tops their group, which seems reasonable in theory, they would face the second-place team from Group Five in Round 16. Group Five is comprised of South Korea, Jordan, Bahrain, and Malaysia, before a potential clash with Australia that could await them in the quarter-finals.
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