Flight of the Falcons

Saudi Arabia is the fifth largest country in Asia with a sound footballing background.

Formation of Saudi Professional league in 1976 gave wings to the Arab nation to fly along and compete with the best in the world.
Majid Abdulla is considered to be the best footballer in Saudi Arabia’s football history.

He bagged most goals for the national side with an incredible tally of 115.  He won AFC Asian cup twice with the national team in 1984 & 1988 and was awarded the best Asian player in the years 1984, 1985 & 1986.

Subsequently they qualified for the football’s biggest stage in 1994, 1998, 2002 & 2006.

The best performance of Saudi came in the 1^st world cup 1994 where they were out under the captaincy of Majid Abdulla. Lost in the first match to Netherlands (2-1) but came back with consecutive wins over Morocco (2-1).

The memorable goal by Saed Al-Owairan brought them to beat Belgium (1-0)proceeding  to their first ever pre-quarters.  Subsequently they were beaten at the hands of Sweden (3-1).

 National team nicknamed the falcons couldn’t better their run on subsequent     years. But after 12 years, they are back on. Their hope of a last 16 rest on a   crop of players like Al-Shehri,  Salem Al-Dawsari, Osama Al-Hawsawi etc.       Bert Van Marwijk was instrumental in leading the side through qualifiers to   the final stage. But parted with the side just before the finals. They come to   world cup under the new coach Juan Antonio Pizzi who took charge from   2017 October onwards. It is to be seen that if he could do a job which he   couldn’t do with Chile.