The story behind the secret sauce in Saudi football
How did Saudi Arabia, 51st in the Fifa rankings and rank outsiders in the context of the 2022 World Cup, beat Argentina, the most in-form team in the world? The Albiceleste boast of players from the biggest clubs in the world. From Lionel Messi and Lautaro Martinez in front, to Nicolás Otamendi and Cristian Romera at the back, the spread of talent in the team made them one of the favourites to go all the way. Facing them in their first match were the Green Falcons, one of two teams (the other being Qatar) in the tournament to feature a squad made up entirely of players who play in their domestic league.
An upset certainly didn’t seem on the cards when Messi’s 10th minute penalty sent Argentina into the lead, but Saleh Al-shehri squeezed in an angled shot in the 48th minute, and shortly after, Salem Al-dawsari curled a stunning shot into the top corner from the edge of the area. The confidence of the Asian team was evident from the manner in which defender Ali Al-bulayhi taunted Messi, slapping him on the back while celebrating the second goal: “You will not win, you will not win.” They did not.
Which brings us back to the question: What has led to the rise of Saudi Arabian football? As recently as 2012, this was a team ranked 126th in the world. As a reference point, India have a current ranking of 106. So, what did they do to work this miracle?
Some might say the short answer is that just came down to money. Saudi Arabia is one of the richest nations in the world, and it decided to put its focus back on football after the reverses of 2002, when they were hammered 8-0 by Germany in their opening tie, and 2018, when they lost 5-0 to Russia.
The Saudi reboot, however, was not at the same scale as the famous German Das Reboot of the 2000s, where they went down to the school level and ensured that everyone from there to the top played and learned football the same way. It was made up of smaller interventions, but it was a reinvention nonetheless.
The first experiment was to loan players to La Liga clubs in 2018. But it didn’t work out because they hardly got any game time. The Saudis, when they saw the plan wasn’t working, manoeuvred quickly, changed tactics, and decided to scale up their own domestic Saudi Pro League.
This is Saudi Arabia’s sixth World Cup out of the last eight. The public appetite for football in the country — domestic and international — is enormous. But the quality was lacking in the players, so the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) introduced a slew of changes in the 2019-20 season to kick-start the reform process.
The new regulations allowed clubs to register a maximum of 28 players in their league squads, down from 33 the season before. The quota of foreign players per team was kept at seven with one key restriction on nationalities – foreign players could not be signed unless the national team they belong to was ranked 100 or higher in the FIFA rankings. Two additional squad berths were designated for Saudi-born foreign players. And it was made mandatory for clubs to include five U-23 Saudi players in their squads.
Another important change with an eye on the future was that each club was required to have at least one Saudi assistant coach, holding an “A” coaching license in addition to one Saudi member in the team’s medical staff starting in 2019-20 season. Slowly, these steps started to add up.
Within three years of the start of this silent revolution, Saudi Arabia are one of Asia’s best men’s football teams at the youth level – and the reigning Asian champions at both Under-23 and Under-19 levels. A pipeline has clearly been established to fuel future growth.
The money, of course, helped. Earlier this year, for instance, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) committed $2.3bn to football sponsorships. The sharp increase in spending on football came a year after the PIF bought Premier League club Newcastle United for just over £300mn (roughly around $363mn). The money wasn’t all though.
In 2019, the Saudis hired Herve Renard as the coach of the national team. The Frenchman, who coached six national teams before taking over the Green Falcons, likes the rhythm of international football. He relishes the opportunity to change things from the ground up – as he did with Zambia, Ivory Coast, and Morocco in the past – and he does that by first recognising what he’s got to play with, and what pieces are at his disposal.
The Saudi players, he found, were technically skilled, but would often not be up for the challenges that modern football threw their way. They wouldn’t run hard enough; they wouldn’t press enough; and they wouldn’t react fast enough to transitions. That is what Renard worked on – the basics of 21st century football.
As things turned out on Monday, it was Argentina who were unable to run with the Saudi Arabians, who kept a high defensive line, pressed hard, scrambled for loose balls, and countered with agility and poise.
“All the stars in the sky were aligned for us, but don’t forget Argentina are still a fantastic team,” Renard told reporters later. “This is football, sometimes totally crazy things can happen.”
They happen more regularly if you have a plan. Like Saudi Arabia did.