[Sports] Information About Al Nassr El Saodi

[GL HERO SHIMA]

Al Nassr Football Club (Arabic: نادي النصر السعودي), simply known as Al Nassr is a professional multi-sports club based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Their football team competes in the Saudi Professional League. In Arabic, Al Nassr means the victory.

Founded on 24 October 1955, Al Nassr are one of three teams to have participated in all seasons of the Saudi Professional League since its establishment in 1976.

Overall, Al Nassr have won 26 official titles in multiple competitions.[3] In domestic competitions, they have won the Professional League nine times, three Crown Prince Cup and Saudi Federation Cup titles, 6 King Cup titles, and two Super Cup titles. At the international level, they earned an Asian double in 1998 by claiming both the Asian Cup Winners' Cup and the Asian Super Cup and won the Arab Club Champions Cup in 2023. Al Nassr has also won two GCC Club Cup titles.Al-Nassr was established in 1955 by the Al-Ja’ba brothers. Training took place in an old playground at Gashlat Al-Shortah, west of Al-Fotah Garden, where there was a small football field and a small room to store balls and shirts. In addition to the Al-Ja'ba brothers, Ali and Al-Owais, Prince Abdul Rahman bin Saud Al Saud became the head of Al Nassr, he spent more than 39 years as the president for 3 stints till his death. His love of the team made him accept the challenge of being the president of a second-division club and turning it into a champion, and therefore, he is known as Al-Nassr's Godfather. They were promoted to the first division in 1963. During the 1970s and 1980s, the club won four Saudi Premier League titles, six King's Cups, three Crown Prince Cups, and three Federation Cups. The team's success was built around the "Saudi Golden Trio" of Majed Abdullah, Fahd Al-Herafy and Mohaisn Al-Jam'aan.

In the 1990s (year), Al Nassr managed to win two further Saudi Premier League titles in the 1993-1994 and 1994–1995 seasons, the 1990 King's Cup and the 1997-1998 Federation Cup. Towards the end of Majed Abdullah's career, he still wasn't able to lift the ultimate prize in UAFA region; the Arab Club Champions Cup while the other top clubs in Saudi already succeeded in doing this. Despite that, Al Nassr managed to triumph in the continental tournaments. The 37-year-old striker, Majed Abdullah at the time, managed to win two GCC Club Cups, one Asian Cup Winners' Cup and one Asian Super Cup. Majed Abdullah announced his retirement on 12 April 1998 following Al-Nassr's win in the 1998 Asian Cup Winner's Cup against Suwon Samsung Bluewings from South Korea in front of 70000 fans in Riyadh. Majed retired at 39 years old as the all-time top scorer of the Saudi League with 189 goals and is also Al-Nassr's all-time top scorer with 260 goals, a record that was considered untouchable until the coming of Abderrazak Hamdallah.

After becoming champion of the Asian Super Cup, Al-Nassr was eligible to represent the AFC region in the first FIFA Club World Cup. In that championship Al-Nassr played against Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, Real Madrid and Raja Casablanca and finished 3rd in the group. Al-Nassr won the competition's Fair Play award

After the Golden Trio's retirement, Al Nassr's fresh squad at the time made an impressive performance during their first run in the FIFA Club World Cup. The Club then went on to sign some internationally recognized players, such as Ivory Coast's Fadel Keïta and former Barcelona Attacking Midfielder Julio César Baldivieso.

Despite the expensive signings at the time, Al-Nassr failed to keep their position in the league and soon received some major setbacks. Things got worse as the next season went by. In 2006–07, the club only managed to avoid relegation on their last day of the season, which prompted honorary members, including Majed Abdullah, to intervene. Their plan was to begin an effective long-term plan to restructure the management.

Their second match in the 2023 Asia Champions League were against Pakhtakor FK, which resulted in a 2–2 draw with the decisive goal coming from Bader Al-Mutawa, a loaned player from a Kuwaiti club who was also part of the Kuwaiti military. In the second match against Esteghlal, Al Nassr managed to secure their first 3 points by winning 2–1, with Hussein Abdulghani scoring. In the third match, Al Nassr was defeated by Al Sadd with them scoring 1 goal by Lee Jung-Soo.

Once again Al Nassr was pitted against Al Sadd from Qatar with Abdulghani clutching 1 goal to force a draw result. In the fifth match however, Al Nassr secured a big victory against Pakhtakor with Saud Hamood and Sahlawi each scoring 1 goal, while Al-Mutawa scored 2 goals. In the final group stage game, Al Nassr were beaten by Esteghlal 2–1 with Al-Mutawa scoring for the club again. Al Nassr narrowly avoided elimination by getting 2nd position in their group.

In the round of sixteen however, Al Nassr's dream to win a continental competition again since the time of Majed Abdullah perished when Zob Ahan defeated Al Nassr 4–1, with Bader once again listing his name in goal chart. Shortly after the continental campaign was over, Bader chose to depart to Kuwait to return to his club and resume military duties. In his short time with Al Nassr, he managed to make a good record by scoring 5 goals, one of the top ten highest scorers in AFC during 2011.

2010 to 2015 Season[edit]

In 2010–12, Al Nassr saw itself in the King Cup. In the 2010–12 season, the Al Nassr coach, Francisco Maturana, aimed for the club to become the Saudi giant it once was. Once again Al Nassr were denied to become champions in the final of the Crown Prince Cup match, where Al-Hilal defeated them in a penalty shootout.

In the 2013–14 season, the club coach was replaced with Jose Daniel Carreno. Al Nassr then went on a 22-game win streak without defeat and almost became the second club in Saudi to win a treble by winning against city rivals Al Akhdhoud in both league and Crown Prince cups. This secured their place for the 2015 AFC Champions League following the astonishing accomplishment.

The 2010s marked the growth of football in most Asian countries, both in league quality and their national teams. The AFC Champions League also started to spark interest among football enthusiasts worldwide.

In the 2014–15 season, Al Nassr continued to defend their title as champions, by winning the league. However the team failed to get their treble after losing in the King's Cup final, as well as only reaching the Crown Prince Cup's semi-final. Many fans felt let down by the club after losing in the group stage of the AFC Champions League against Bunyodkor from Uzbekistan, Al Duhail and Persepolis.

Al Sahlawi, who was 27 years old at the time was only able to score 25 goals from his 37 appearances that season. For these reasons, the coach was replaced by the former Colombian goalkeeper Rene Higuita. Even with him training the team, Al Nassr still failed to break through the AFC Champions League. After being defeated by Al Duhail and Zob Ahan, Al Nassr finally defeated their opponent Bunyodkor back to back.

The start of the 2016–2017 season marked the transfers of two Croatian players into the club: Ivan Tomecak and Marin Tomasov, who were loaned to Al Nassr. Abdullah Madu, a new center-back at the time also started playing with the club. In this season however, the club only got 3rd position in the Roshn Saudi League, behind their rival Al Ahli and city rival Al Akhdhoud.

Al Nassr only finished second in the Crown Prince Cup that season, losing to Al Hilal once more. They were also runner-up to Al Ahli in the final of Kings Cup. Al Nassr failed to qualify for the AFC Champions League 2017 and the AFC Champions League 2018. In the 2015–2016 season, Sahlawi scored 10 goals in his 29 appearances. In the season 2016–2017, Sahlawi scored 11 goals in 27 appearances, and in the next season 12 goals from 24 appearances.

Al Nassr coach Gustavo Quinteros from Bolivia, decided to sign Wingback Sultan Al Ghannam on 12 March 2018 for a free transfer from Al Faisaly. Ghannam quickly proved his talent by becoming a key player in the defense and offense. The club also signed arguably the two best Moroccan Players at the time, Abderrazek Hamdallah and Nordin Amrabat. Both of them joined in the Saudi Professional League on 16 July and 23 August 2018.

Hamdallah, nicknamed The Executioner proved himself to be a menace when he made his debut against Al Qadsiah FC, making two assists. In his second match, he scored his first goal for the club against Al Taawoun FC. After this, Sahlawi's position as club favourite striker began to slowly shift into Hamdallah as the former Chinese League star player adapted with his teammates. The Moroccan Forward broke the record since the league became professional in 2007 and carried his team to qualify for 2019 AFC Champions League by defeating FK AGMK Olmaliq.

In the 2019 AFC Champions League, Al Nassr managed to secure 2nd position in the group stage just below Zob Ahan and advanced past the round of sixteen with Hamdallah scoring. In the quarter-final, Al Nassr was defeated by Al Sadd 4–3. Hamdallah scored 4 goals in the 2019 AFC Champions League.

Despite the bad start due to a previous ankle injury, Hamadallah was able to end his first season in the Saudi Professional League as the top scorer after impressively scoring 34 goals. By this time, Hamdalllah had completely replaced Sahlawi as the main striker.

In the 2018–19 Season, he won the league title with his team. He scored a record of 34 goals with his teammate Nordin Amrabat. He scored in the final match against Al Batin. On 3 January 2019, Hamdallah scored his first hat-trick for the club against Al Jandal SC in the Round of 64 in the 2019 King Cup.

10 days later, he scored a super hat-trick against Al Ansar FC. He scored consecutive super hat-tricks against Al-Fayha FC in the Round of 16. On 27 April 2019, Hamdallah scored a double in a 4–2 loss in the semi-final against Al Ittihad of the 2019 King Cup. By the end of 2019, Hamdallah managed to beat several stars such as Robert Lewandowski and Lionel Messi as the world's top scorer, noted by IFFHS, after reaching 57 goals in the year. Al Sahlawi also left the club to join Al-Shabab.

On 4 January 2020, Hamdallah scored in a 1–1 draw against Al Taawoun FC to win the 2019 Saudi Super Cup. On 30 January 2021, Hamdallah scored in a 3–0 victory against Al Hilal SFC to win the 2020 Saudi Super Cup.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Nassr_FC