Al-Shabab FC (Riyadh)

This article is about the Saudi football club. For other uses, see Al-Shabab (disambiguation).

Al-Shabab FC

Full name	Al Shabab Football Club
Nickname(s)	White Lions The Sheikh (Chief)
Founded	1947
Ground	King Fahd Stadium Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Ground Capacity	62,685
Chairman	Abdullah Al Qurini
Manager	Sami Al-Jaber
League	Professional League
2015–16	Professional League, 6th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Al-Shabab FC (Arabic: نادي الشباب‎‎) is a Saudi Arabian professional football club based in Riyadh. It was founded in 1947, and was named at first Shabab Al Riyadh, but later in 1967 was named Al Shabab. Al Shabab club has produced prominent players such as Saeed Al-Owairan who scored the crucial goal for Saudi Arabia against Belgium in the 1994 World Cup. Also Fuad Amin, who scored Saudi Arabia's first World Cup goal against Netherlands. Al Shabab is also known for selling many players to other Saudi clubs, as Reda Tukar (Ittihad) and Abdulaziz AlKhatran (Al-Hilal).

History

Al Shabab was the first football club in Riyadh. The club began in 1947, with many conflicts before with its numerous members, but it was settled in 1947 and Abdulrahman Bin Saeed was the president. Five years later, Al Shabab won its first tournament beating Sakit Al Hadeed (Railway Club) in Riyadh. Three years later, in 1955 Al Shabab beat the Military College to win the King Saud Cup. Two years passed, and a new conflict arose in 1957. The player, Saleh Jaber, was assigned captain, but then was fired, and the new captain was Ahmed Lmfoon. This did not please some members of the club. Soon the conflict was impossible to solve, and Abdulrahman Bin Saeed and some members, left Al Shabab and created a new football club, which is the club known today as Al-Hilal. The club stopped for half a year due to financial weakness after the departure of its founder Abdulrahman Bin Saeed. Then in the beginning of 1959 another problem began, Abdullah Bin Ahmed, the president then, was all alone taking care of the club. He couldn't take the pressure of handling the club alone, and decided to take a vacation abroad. Before traveling, he disbanded the first team, and most of the players signed for other clubs mainly Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal. What was left was the youth team, and the player Abdulrahman Bin Ahmed decided to take care of the youth team. Soon Abdullah Bin Ahmed returned, and many members returned and supported the club. Then Abdullah Bin Ahmed announced the return of forming the first team, and some players returned, but some stayed at Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal. Also in 1959 was the formation of the Saudi Football Federation, and all football clubs were announced official. In 1960 in the first official tournament called King Saud Cup for the Central Province, Al Shabab faced Al Hilal in their first official games between the two, and won 3–0 to win their first cup.

In the 1960s, everyone wanted to play and be part of the club, and after the request of Al Najmah FC and Al Marekh in 1967, they were united as one club and changed their name from Shabab Riyadh, to simply Al Shabab. The colors of the team were at first white and green, then they were changed after the unification to orange and blue, but in 1977 it was changed to white, gray, and black, the current colors. In 1975 Al Shabab was delegated to the 1st Division. But the next season it was able to win 1st place, and was relegated back to the Premier League in 1976. In 1993, Al Shabab became the first club in Saudi Arabia to win 3 premier leagues in a row. In 2007, Al Shabab became the first club in Saudi Arabia to build projects to increase the club's revenue, and began a 200 million dollar project which contains a 5 star hotel, and a shopping mall. During a visit to the club in January 2008, Al Shabab's main supporter, Khalid bin Sultan, announced the launch of two new projects, Al Laith TV Channel, and Al Shabab Museum.

Achievements

24 Official Championships

• Saudi Premier League:
  • Champion (6): 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 2003–04, 2005–06, 2011–12
    • Runner-up (5): 1981–82, 1984–85, 1988–89, 1997–98, 2004–05
• Saudi Champions Cup :
  • Champion (3): 2008, 2009, 2014
    • Runner-up: 2013
• Crown Prince Cup:
  • Champion (3): 1993, 1996, 1999
    • Runner-up (4): 1992, 1994, 2000, 2009
• Saudi Super Cup:
  • Champion: 2014
• Saudi Federation cup:
  • Champion (4): 1988, 1989, 2009, 2010
    • Runner-up (2): 1999, 2000
• Saudi First Division :
  • Champion: 1979
• Asian Cup Winners Cup:
  • Champion: 2001
• Arab Champions League:
  • Champion (2): 1992, 1999
• Arab Super Cup:
  • Champion (2): 1996, 2001
• Gulf Club Champions Cup:
  • Champion (2): 1993, 1994

Performance in AFC competitions

• AFC Champions League: 9 appearances
  • Finals : 1993
  • Semi-finals : 2010
  • Quarter-finals : 2006, 2013
  • Round of 16 : 2009, 2011, 2014
  • Group stage : 2005, 2007, 2015
• Asian Club Championship: 3 appearances
  • Runner-up : 1992–93
  • Group stage : 1993–94, 1994–95
• Asian Cup Winners Cup: 2 appearance
  • Winner : 2000–01
  • Second round : 2001–02
• Asian Super Cup: 1 appearance
  • Runner-up : 2001

Records

• First Saudi club to win three Saudi Premier League in a row (1991, 1992, and 1993).
• First Saudi club to win the professional and new Saudi Premier League, in 1991. Also first Saudi club to win the Saudi Champions Cup in 2008.
• Only club in the world to play two games in one day, in 1999 in the afternoon in the Arab Elite Cup final, and at night in the Crown Prince Cup final against Al-Hilal. This was due to bad planning by the Saudi FA, in which Al Shabab decided to use two teams, one in Syria to play the Arabic final, and another composed of the starting players in Riyadh to play the Crown Prince Cup final against Al-Hilal, in which they lost the Arabic final, but won the Crown Prince Cup.
• Largest margin win was against Al Shoalah during a friendly tournament in 2007, 8–0. Largest margin win in an official game was against Al-Ta'ee in the Saudi Premier League in 2003, 7–0. Largest margin win against a high-ranked club was 6–1 against Al-Nasr in the Saudi Premier League 2004.

Players

As of Saudi Premier League:

No Position Player Nation 1 Goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah     Saudi Arabia 22 Goalkeeper Mohammed Awaji     Saudi Arabia 33 Goalkeeper Mohammed Al-Owais     Saudi Arabia 50 Goalkeeper Mansor Joher     Saudi Arabia 2 Defender Abdullah Al Asta     Saudi Arabia 4 Defender Amer Haroon     Saudi Arabia 13 Defender Hassan Muath     Saudi Arabia 17 Defender Saleh Al-Qumaizi     Saudi Arabia 18 Defender Sari Amr     Saudi Arabia 19 Defender Abdullah Al-Fahad     Saudi Arabia 24 Defender Faisel Haddadi     Saudi Arabia 25 Defender Majed Al-Marshedi     Saudi Arabia 28 Defender Hamad Al-Jizani     Saudi Arabia 35 Defender Hassan Raghfawi     Saudi Arabia 42 Defender Sanad Sharahili     Saudi Arabia 8 Midfielder Abdulmajeed Al-Sulayhem     Saudi Arabia 10 Midfielder Saif Al Hashan     Kuwait 11 Midfielder Ahmed Otaif (Captain)    Saudi Arabia 12 Midfielder Abdulmalek Al-Khaibri     Saudi Arabia 14 Midfielder Badr Al-Sulaitin     Saudi Arabia 15 Midfielder Abdulaziz Al-Bishi     Saudi Arabia 16 Midfielder Abdullah Al-Sobeai     Saudi Arabia 20 Midfielder Abdulwahab Jaafer     Saudi Arabia 21 Midfielder Mohammed Al-Hamdani     Saudi Arabia 30 Midfielder Faisel Al-Johani     Saudi Arabia 34 Midfielder Khaled Hakami     Saudi Arabia 39 Midfielder Abdurahman Khairallah     Saudi Arabia 45 Midfielder Nader Al-Muwallad     Saudi Arabia 55 Midfielder Moshari Al-Thamali     Saudi Arabia 80 Midfielder Abdurahman Al-Khaibari     Saudi Arabia 29 Forward Rakhi Al-Shameri     Saudi Arabia 32 Forward Mohamed Benyettou     Algeria 70 Forward Ismael Al-Maghrebi     Saudi Arabia -- Defender Sanad Al-Ameeri     Saudi Arabia -- Defender Omar Al-Muziel     Saudi Arabia -- Defender Jamaan Al-Dossari     Saudi Arabia

Management

Current board of directors and Administrators

Office	Name
President	Abdullah AlQurini
Vice-president	Ahmed Alkanhal
Member of the Board,Investment Officer	Abdullah bin Faisal
Member of the Board,Secretary-General	Kholaif Alhweshan
Member of the Board, Director of the Media Center	Moath Alajlan

Current technical staff

Position	Name
Manager	Fathi Al-Jabal
Assistant manager	Talal El Karkouri
Fitness coach
Goalkeeping coach	Vacant
U 23 team coach
U 20 team coach	Adham Selehdar
U 17 team coach	Tamer Mustafa

Recent seasons

The table below chronicles the achievements of Al Shabab in various competitions since 2000.

Year	Division	Position	Crown Prince Cup	King Cup	ACL
2000–01	Premier League	7th	Semi-final	Not held	–
2001–02	Premier League	9th	Quarter-final	–
2002–03	Premier League	6th	Quarter-final	–
2003–04	Premier League	1st	Quarter-final	–
2004–05	Premier League	2nd	Quarter-final	Group stage
2005–06	Premier League	1st	Semi-final	Quarter-finals
2006–07	Premier League	4th	Quarter-final	Group stage
2007–08	Premier League	3rd	Semi-final	Champion	–
2008–09	Pro League	4th	Runners-up	Champion	Round of 16
2009–10	Pro League	4th	Semi-final	Semi-final	Semi-final
2010–11	Pro League	4th	Round of 16	Quarter-final	Round of 16
2011–12	Pro League	1st	Quarter-final	Quarter-final	–
2012–13	Pro League	3rd	Round of 16	Runners-up	Quarter-finals
2013–14	Pro League	4th	Semi-final	Champion	Round of 16
2014–15	Pro League	5th	Round of 16	Quarter-final	Group stage

Managers

Mahmoud Abou-Regaila (1970–71) Luiz Felipe Scolari (1984–85) Jair Pereira (1986) Joubert (1987) Lori Sandri (1989) Paulo Campos (1990–91) Lori Sandri (1992) Geninho (1993) Ivo Wortmann (1994) Jean Fernandez (1996–97) Oscar (1998) João Alves (1998–99) João Francisco (1999) Arthur Bernardes (2001–02) Zé Mario (1 July 2004 – 30 June 2006) Daniel Romeo (2005–06) Ahmed Alajlani (2006) Humberto Coelho (2006–07)

José Morais (2007) Enzo Trossero (1 July, 2007–08) Nery Pumpido (1 July 2008 – 31 December 2008) Enzo Trossero (2008 – 30 June 2009) Jaime Pacheco (13 July 2009 – 15 April 2010) Edgar Ferreira (interim) Jorge Fossati (1 July 2010 – 31 December 2010) Enzo Trossero (1 January 2011 – 30 June 2011) Michel Preud'homme (1 July 2011 – 19 September 2013) Emilio Ferrera (20 September 2013 – 23 January 2014) Ammar Souayah (interim) José Morais (6 June, 2014–14) Reinhard Stumpf (2014–15) Jaime Pacheco (2015) Adel Abdulrahman (interim) Álvaro Gutiérrez (2015 – 3 January 2016) Fathi Al-Jabal (3 January 2016 – )

AFC Club ranking

Rankings are calculated by the AFC

Rank	Club	Points
8	Esteghlal	73.387
9	Al-Ain	72.608
10	Al Shabab	71.000
11	Al-Ittihad	70.000
12	Bunyodkor	69.690

External links

• Official website
• [1]

Preceded by Shimizu S-Pulse

Asian Cup Winners' Cup Runner up: Dalian Shide 2001

Succeeded by Al-Hilal