The season in Saudi Arabia has come to an end. The championship has ended and there is very little left until the Cup final (it will be played on May 31). Let’s summarize the results of the league, to which many stars have moved.
Champion
Domain. This word can describe the title “Al-Hilal”. Before the start of the season, the Riyadh club invited Jorge Jesus to the position of head coach and spent 353 million euros on the newcomers. The team’s most expensive signing went bankrupt in October. Neymar (90 million euros were paid for him) was seriously injured and only played three games for Al-Hilal in the Championship. But the team did not realize the loss. Al-Hilal scored a whopping 96 points (31 wins, three draws, 0 losses) and was the top scorer of the championship (101 goals). Jesús’ team contributed 14 points to its closest pursuer.
Al-Hilal is the champion of Saudi Arabia
Photo: Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images
How good were the star newcomers? Aleksandar Mitrovic, Malcolm and Sergej Milinkovic scored 54 goals between them, Ruben Neves provided 12 assists and goalkeeper Yassin Bono kept 15 clean sheets. The productive play of the foreign players led the team to win the championship title for the fourth time in five years. In addition, Al Hilal won the Saudi Arabian Super Cup and reached the final of the country’s Cup (the match will be played on May 31). It is possible that the Riyadh club will achieve a “golden” hat-trick.
Who else made it to the AFC Champions League?
Saudi Arabia will delegate three representatives to the new tournament. In addition to Al-Hilal, Al-Nasr and Al-Ahly will play there. The Riyadh Club put up good numbers: 26 wins, 82 points, 100 goals scored. It is true that Al-Nasr lost a lot (42 goals); according to this indicator, he did not even reach the top 3. Perhaps Al-Nasr would have become champions if such a phenomenal Al-Hilal had not been in the league. Al Nasr’s second place is no doubt, as his closest pursuer is 17 points behind. However, it is possible that the Club will end the season without a single trophy. But Luis Castro’s team has another opportunity: on May 31 they will play the final of the Saudi Arabia Cup.
How Al-Nasr played the final match of the championship:
Ronaldo broke the record and left the field like a king. And then Al-Nasr put on a circus.
Al-Ahly also entered the top three and will play in the Champions League in the new season. Interestingly, the team’s best sniper was Firas al-Buraikan (13 goals). And this despite the presence of Riyad Mahrez and Roberto Firmino. The Brazilian, by the way, scored only nine goals (three in the 1st day). Al Ahly’s third place can be considered a successful result, considering that last season the team played in the second strongest division. Al Ahly spent the first year under the leadership of Matthias Jaissle.
Matthias Jaissle reached third place with Al Ahly
Photo: Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images
What about Al-Ittihad?
The current league champion has failed this season. Karim Benzema played only 21 games and scored nine goals. Surely more was expected from the Frenchman. The change of coach did not help Al-Ittihad: the team only took fifth place in the table. Thus, the Jeddah club won not only the Champions League, but also all international tournaments. They would have found themselves in the Asian equivalent of the Europa League if they had been at least fourth in the table. From time to time, information emerges about Benzema’s possible departure, and the footballer’s brother openly expresses his discontent with the way the coaching staff uses Karima. The French star may no longer play for Al-Ittihad.
The 2023/2024 season was unsuccessful for Karim Benzema
Photo: Getty Images
Scoring career
Cristiano Ronaldo still scores goals at 39 years old, although he no longer plays in Europe’s main leagues. The Portuguese played 31 games in the Saudi Arabian championship and did not score in only nine of them. 35 goals is a record in league history. In total, Cristiano has scored 44 goals this season. How many trophies does his team have? So far 0. But everything can be fixed on May 31, when the Cup final will be played.
Cristiano Ronaldo sets record for goals in the league
Photo: Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images
The second on the list of snipers was Alexander Mitrovich. The Serbian scored 28 goals. Good result, but he couldn’t compete with Ronaldo. And this takes into account the fact that Mitrovic scored 11 goals from penalties and the Portuguese eight. Third place was shared by former Spartak player Fashion Sakala and Abderrazak Hamdalla. The first club plays for the Al-Faiha club, the second for Al-Ittihad.
Nasty stats for Ronaldo:
Who Ronaldo couldn’t score against. The list of inconvenient rivals for Cristiano is surprising
Sakala, who once played 35 games for Spartak’s second team, turned out to be very productive at the end of the season. The striker had a seven-game scoring streak, during this period he scored nine times. Fashion also scored often from the field: he only scored two penalty goals all season. Moroccan Hamdalla, 33, could finish in third place, but missed the end of the season (five games) due to injury.
Former Zenit player Malcom scored 15 goals. This is the second result in Al-Hilal and the seventh in the entire league. By the way, a Brazilian with a Russian passport has never scored from a penalty. This is a unique indicator for the list of top ten scorers in the Saudi league. Malcom played more productively in the first round than in the second. He scored nine goals from the 1st to the 15th matchday and six from the 16th to the 30th. But the most important thing is that Malcolm became champion in his first year in Saudi Arabia.
Malcom: second scorer for Al-Hilal
Photo: Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images
Former RPL legionnaires did not save Abha from relegation
Grzegorz Krychowiak and Francois Camano have experience performing in Russia. The Pole played for Lokomotiv and Krasnodar, and the African applied for the Railways. They spent last season in Saudi Arabia, where they played together for Club Abha. Both were first team players. Krychowiak finished second on the team in minutes played, while Camano ranked sixth. Grzegorz is Abhi’s best player in terms of goals (nine). However, despite the efforts of the footballers we know, his team leaves the elite division. “Abha” took third place from the bottom of the table and was just one point behind the safety line. Krychowiak’s contract expires next summer, Camano’s within a year.
Kamano did not live up to expectations:
5 stars of the Saudi championship who do not live up to expectations. you know them well
