Team created by Interista93 with suggestions from StuartBannigan




Honours:

• AFC Asian Cup

Winners (3): 1984, 1988, 1996
Runners-up (3): 1992, 2000, 2007

• FIFA Confederations Cup

Runners-up (1): 1992
Fourth place (1): 1999


COACH: Khalil AL-ZAYANI






The best ever Saudi Arabian players 23-man squad


GOALKEEPERS:

● Abdullah AL-DEAYEA
● Mohamed AL-DEAYEA


DEFENDERS:

● Hussein ABDULGHANI
● Abdullah AL-DOSARI
● Mohamed Abd AL-JAWAD
● Mohammed AL-KHILAIWI
● Ahmed MADANI
● Saleh AL-NAIMA
● Abdullah ZUBROMAWI


MIDFIELDERS:

● Fuad AMIN
● Fahad AL-BISHI
● Fahad AL-MUSAIBEAH
● Khaled AL-MUWALLID
● Mohammed NOOR
● Nawaf AL-TEMYAT
● Yousuf AL-THUNAYAN


FORWARDS:

● Majed ABDULLAH
● Salem AL-DOSARI
● Fahad AL-GHESHEYAN
● Sami AL-JABER
● Mohaisen AL-JAMAAN
● Saeed AL-OWAIRAN
● Yasser AL-QAHTANI


__________________________________________________


RESERVES:


GOALKEEPERS:

● Mabrouk ZAID
● Ahmed EID
● Salem MARWAN


DEFENDERS:

● Hussein AL-BISHI
● Saleh AL-DAWOOD
● Ahmad AL-DOKHI
● Osama AL-MUWALLAD
● Osama HAWSAWI
● Mohammed AL-JAHANI
● Nasser AL-MEAWID
● Hamad AL-MONTASHARI
● Hassan MUATH
● Redha TUKAR


MIDFIELDERS:

● Omar AL-GHAMDI
● Ibrahim AL-HARBI
● Taiseer AL-JASSAM
● Saud KARIRI
● Saleh KHALIFA
● Khamis AL-OWAIRAN
● Hamzah SALEH
● Mohammed AL-SHALHOUB
● Ibrahim AL-SHAHRANI
● Khalid AL-TEMAWI


FORWARDS:

● Mohamed AL-ABDALI
● Obeid AL-DOSARI
● Hamzah FALATAH
● Saeed GURAB
● Naif HAZAZI
● Fahad AL-MEHALLEL
● Talal AL-MESHAL
● Fahad AL-MUWALLAD
● Shaye AL-NAFISAH
● Nasser AL-SHAMRANI









INFO:

Salem Al-Dosari started his career as a right winger and then moved to a left winger. He can play on both sides. I don’t know what your criteria for selecting players is, but I chose Al-Jamaan because he was more efficient than Al-Gheshayan.

Changed Al-Shalhoub with Noor and Falatah with Al-Jamaan. Noor should add some more defensive balance to the team and was by far the best player at the 2006 World Cup. And with no Al-Shalhoub, that opens up a left wing spot for Al-Jamaan.

I know there's a rule of 7 players per position, but choosing Al-Jamaan instead of Al-Shalhoub in the first team just feels wrong to me. Can't we find a way to adjust that?

That's not a rule. I prefer 7 players per position, but it's possible that a team has 8 defenders, 8 midfielders and 5 strikers, for example. So, you may give a suggestion to discuss.

I like Al-Shalhoub, but his career with the national team was long, but quite uneventful. He only ever played a few minutes at the World Cup, and probably his biggest achievement was reaching the final of the Asian Cup in 2000. Al-Jamaan had a big part in winning two Asian Cups and qualifying for the Olympics. Whereas I think it’s fair to say that Al-Shalhoub was more of an Al-Hilal legend than a national team legend.

I thought it was a rule. In this case, there's even more reason to put Al-Shalhoub back in the first team. He was capped more than a hundred times for the NT and was top 3 in Asian Footballer of the Year in 2006. I think that's enough to grant him a spot on the first team.

There are lots of Saudi players with 100 caps and others have also been in the top 3 for Asian Player of the Year, Al-Montashari and Al-Shamrani even won it. I'd rather select those that had an influence on winning international titles. Al-Shalhoub collected a lot of caps, but that's not difficult for Saudi players, they play probably more games than any other national team. And Al-Shalhoub played in a quite unsuccessful period for Saudi Arabia, but even then he wasn't as important at the time as Al-Temyat, Al-Jaber or later Al-Qahtani. Also, I prefer to have another WF instead of an SMF/AMF since there's already enough players for those positions.