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 is well known in Saudi Arabia as one of the best in football. Al Shabab club is also well known for producing great players, 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
28 Official Championships
Performance in AFC competitions
Records
- First Saudi club to win three Saudi Premier League in a row (1991, 1992, and 1993).[2]
- 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:[3]
Out on loan
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.
Managers
|
|
-
 José Morais (2007)
-
 Enzo Trossero (July 1, 2007–08)
- Nery Pumpido (July 1, 2008 – Dec 31, 2008)
- Enzo Trossero (2008 – June 30, 2009)
- Jaime Pacheco (July 13, 2009 – April 15, 2010)
-
 Edgar Ferreira (interim)
-
 Jorge Fossati (July 1, 2010 – Dec 31, 2010)
- Enzo Trossero (Jan 1, 2011 – June 30, 2011)
-
.svg.png) Michel Preud'homme (July 1, 2011 – Sept 19, 2013)
- Emilio Ferrera (Sept 20, 2013 – Jan 23, 2014)
-
 Ammar Souayah (interim)
- José Morais (June 6, 2014–14)
-
 Reinhard Stumpf (2014–15)
- Jaime Pacheco (2015)
- Adel Abdulrahman (interim)[8]
- Álvaro Gutiérrez (2015 – Jan 3, 2016)
- Fathi Al-Jabal (Jan 3, 2016 – )
|
AFC Club Ranking
Rankings are calculated by the AFC[9]
References
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Al-Shabab. |
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