Al-Qadsiah's journey to becoming a Saudi Pro League giant

It’s not every day that a Premier League Golden Boot winner, a European champion, and a FIFA World Cup bronze medalist link up in Saudi Arabia at a club named Al-Qadsiah.

Three weeks ago, former Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang signed a two-year contract with Al-Qadsiah FC. The Gabonese international joins Spain’s Nacho Fernández and Belgium’s Koen Casteels as the newly promoted club’s marquee signings for the upcoming season.

Just 14 months ago, the club from Khobar wrapped up a dismal campaign in Saudi Arabia’s second tier that included two-seven game winless runs and three different managers. This is the story of Al-Qadsiah’s journey to earn a place among the giants of the Saudi Pro League.

The takeover of Al-Qadsiah

On June 5, 2023, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Sport announced the acquisition of eight soccer clubs by various state-backed entities. The group believed that new financial flows would allow the Middle Eastern country to compete on soccer’s global stage. One of those clubs was Al-Qadsiah, which was bought by oil company Aramco. Although a fraction of the company trades publicly on the stock exchange Tadawul, a combined 98% of the petroleum and gas giant is owned directly by the Saudi government and the PIF, the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund.

Al-Qadsiah was struggling. The club had just finished 11th in the First Division League, the Saudi second tier. Just 10 players were under contract for the upcoming season. They struggled to keep a manager under contract. Between 2013 and 2023, only two men, Jameel Qassem and Yousef Al Mannai, had held their jobs for more than seven months.

The Aramco purchase seemed to offer promises of a better future. With free cash flows in the billions, the oil company had the means to rebuild Al-Qadsiah from the ground up. Their first order of business was to put someone on the touchline: former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler. The Toxteth native began his coaching career as a player-manager at Thai club Muangthong United. Following a spell with his old club’s academy, Fowler spent time with Australia’s Brisbane Roar and India’s East Bengal. He was working part-time with League One side Oxford United when Al-Qadsiah called in June 2023. Anxious to get his career back on track, Fowler accepted the position.

The revamp

Immediately, Al-Qadsiah hit the transfer market. Fowler’s goal was to win promotion. With Aramco footing the bill, money was no object. Former Sunderland captain Max Power rejected a new contract at Wigan Athletic, along with other offers in the Championship, to join Fowler’s squad. Senegal’s Mbaye Diagne came on board after a 23-goal season with Fatih Karagümrük in the Turkish Süper Lig. Goalkeeper Joel Robles left Leeds United for the promise of more game time in the Middle East. Despite the best efforts of Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr to retain Álvaro González, the Spanish center-back left on a free transfer to strengthen Al-Qadsiah’s back line.

Two weeks later, three more signings arrived at the club. With more than 250 combined appearances for Al-Hilal, the attacking duo of Andre Carrillo and Luciano Vietto provided much-needed familiarity with the Saudi style of play. After nine years at 1. FSV Mainz 05, former German U-20 international Alexander Hack departed the Bundesliga side to play abroad for the first time in his professional career.

The first transfer window under Aramco was Al-Qadsiah’s busiest in four years. The club signed 16 new players and promoted five others from the under-23 team. Despite beginning the summer unable to field an 11-man squad, they now had the resources to make a convincing run at the First Division title.

The campaign

Al-Qadsiah opened the 2023-24 season against Al-Adalah, a team that had just returned to the second tier following relegation from the Pro League. The debuting Max Power captained a side that featured eight new signings and three returning players. The home side got off to a flying start, going 1-0 up inside of three minutes courtesy of wingback Taher Wadi. Al-Adalah equalized a half hour later through Togolese international Samsondin Ouro, but 31-year-old Mohammed Al-Saiari’s goal on the other side of halftime secured a 2-1 victory for Al-Qadsiah.

Under Fowler, Al-Qadsiah played with a clear identity. After experimenting at his previous clubs, the Englishman had settled on dictating the pace of play with a “possession-based” 3-5-2. A compact defense forced the opposition out wide into overloads. Quick combinations between the attacking midfielders and strikers provided the threat going forward. The finished product was a side that scored 10 goals and conceded just three in their first eight league games.

Then, despite an unbeaten start to the season, Al-Qadsiah sacked Fowler. Just six days ahead of a clash with league leaders Al-Orobah, the club elected to dismiss the Liverpudlian. Although quiet at the time, Fowler later cited sporting director Carlos Antón’s desire to adopt a “Spanish model” as the reason for the move. Not coincidentally, Al-Qadsiah immediately hired former Spanish international Míchel as the new manager. The long-time Real Madrid midfielder had nearly 20 years of experience at the senior level with spells at Granada, Málaga, and Marseille. After being forced out mid-season at Olympiacos, Míchel was keen to turn things around in Saudi Arabia.

The evolution

With little time to prepare, Al-Qadsiah lost to Al-Orobah in Míchel’s first match in charge. After playing the entire season with three defenders, the Spaniard’s side looked uncomfortable building out of a back four. Carrillo struggled to get on the ball in his new position on the wing. The strike partnership of Diagne and Vietto lacked composure in front of goal. As a whole, the squad failed to display the same poise and confidence they had under Fowler.

In their next two games, Al-Qadsiah needed a 96th-minute goal to defeat mid-table Al-Arabi and a 95th-minute equalizer to rescue a point against Jeddah FC. Now sitting in third, Míchel changed his 4-4-2 for a 4-2-3-1, with Vietto underneath Diagne as the central attacking midfielder. The effect of the tactical shift was immediate, with the duo combining for 12 goals in their next six matches. At the midway point of the season, Al-Qadsiah had secured 40 points from a possible 51 and built an eight-point cushion at the top of the table.

Míchel’s men flew through the rest of their fixtures largely without incident. After failing to score in the first three matches after the winter break, Al-Qadsiah won five in a row to stretch their lead to nine points. Then, they bounced back from consecutive losses to the second-and third-place teams to finish the season on a seven-match unbeaten streak.

Al-Qadsiah secured promotion with three games to spare following a 2-2 draw away to Ohod Club. Then, they locked up their first title win in nine years with a 4-2 win over Al-Najma at home in the Prince Saud Bin Jalawi Stadium. The summer signings proved to be the difference. Robles recorded 15 clean sheets in 33 games. Diagne topped the First Division scoring charts with a career-high 26 goals. Vietto added 17 of his own — good for second place — and recorded a league-high 10 assists. Carrillo notched seven goal contributions, and Hack led all defenders with more than 2,000 minutes played.

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The overhaul

Al-Qadsiah finished the 2023-24 season with 73 points and more than twice as many wins (22) as they managed the season before (10). As convincing a performance as that was, the Pro League is a different beast. The Khobar club was immediately relegated just a season after they last won promotion to the top flight in 2019-20. Given the recent influx of elite talent, the level of competition in the Pro League is even higher than it was back then. With Aramco more than willing to finance more signings, Al-Qadsiah opted to shake up the squad for the second consecutive summer.

Mbaye Diagne’s contract was terminated by mutual consent to facilitate a move to First Division side Neom SC, where he will reportedly earn an annual salary of $7.5 million. Al-Qadsiah also elected not to renew the contracts of Luciano Vietto, Álvaro González, or January signing Kévin Rodrigues. The departures of Faris Abdi (free transfer to Al-Fayha) and Taher Wadi (loaned to Al-Diriyah) further depleted the club’s defensive options. When the transfer window opened, Al-Qadsiah had holes to fill everywhere on the pitch.

First, the club beat out AS Roma for the signature of Uruguayan international Nahitan Nández on a free transfer from Serie A club Cagliari. Then, in the middle of the UEFA European Championship, Al-Qadsiah announced the signing of goalkeeper Koen Casteels from VfL Wolfsburg to a three-year contract. The 2018 World Cup bronze medalist established himself as Belgium’s No. 1 this summer after manager Domenico Tedesco failed to call up Thibaut Courtois. Two weeks later, Nacho Fernández signed with the Saudi club after 23 years with Real Madrid. The defender won 26 trophies with the La Liga outfit and was a part of the Spain side that defeated England in the Euro final last month.

Next, Al-Qadsiah shelled out almost $15 million for six-time Liga MX champion Julián Quiñones. Born in Colombia, the 27-year-old Mexican international scored 23 goals in all competitions for Club América.

He will line up alongside arguably the Saudi club’s most recognizable signing to date, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The former Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona striker rediscovered his form at Marseille last season with 30 goals in 51 games. Together, Quiñones and Aubameyang will hope to match, or better, the goal production of the departed Diagne and Vietto.

Al-Qadsiah still has a handful of uncertainties in the squad to address before their first league match on August 23. The recent departure of Joel Robles, rumored to be moving to Portugal’s Estoril, may prompt the signing of a new goalkeeper to deputize Casteels. Max Power’s contract has yet to be renewed, but his replacement, Boca Juniors youngster Ezequiel Fernández, is reportedly close to joining the Saudi side. The Argentinian midfielder’s arrival would be a big boost for Al-Qadsiah after losing out on Álvaro Morata, Lamine Camara and Youssef En-Nesyri in recent weeks.

The future of Al-Qadsiah

The resurgence of Al-Qadsiah is only just beginning. On July 31, the Saudi Press Agency announced that a new stadium in Khobar will serve as one of 15 venues for the 2034 FIFA World Cup. The 47,000-seat project is the result of a partnership between club owners Aramco and real estate company ROSHN.

Once completed, “Aramco Stadium” will serve as Al-Qadsiah’s new home. Designed like a whirlpool, the venue is an apt symbol for the club’s past year. Without Aramco, it’s possible that Al-Qadsiah could still be struggling for breath in the First Division. The oil company’s financial support transformed a mediocre side into an excellent one.

It will take a Herculean effort to dethrone the preeminent Saudi sides. Last season, Neymar’s Al-Hilal won 31 of their 34 games to clinch their sixth Pro League title in the last eight years. The Riyadh-based club finished 12 points ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr & 31 points ahead of Roberto Firmino’s Al-Ahli.

To challenge the champions, Al-Qadsiah will need to be perfect. With abundant momentum on their side, they just might be capable of pulling off the impossible.