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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…
Source link : https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/al-qadsiah-journey-to-becoming-a-saudi-pro-league-giant/
Author : Matthew Placzek
Publish date : 2024-08-06 14:08:06
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