Saad Al-Shehri once again brought the national coach back to the fore with an unprecedented achievement by winning the recently concluded Asian Under-23 Cup with the Olympic team in Uzbekistan.
Saad Al-Shehri was showered with accolades and praise, especially since the achievement of the Olympic green was not an accident, but the culmination of a great effort of the players and a clear imprint of the coach.
Perhaps the best testimonies have come from the Asian Football Confederation, which considered Saad Al Shehri one of the most prominent creators of new talent on the Asian continent for his role in leading the Olympic team to reach the 2022 AFC Finals. Uzbekistan U-23 Championship, the second time in a row in the history of the tournament, Then the title was crowned for the first time, and the 42-year-old coach continued, in recent years he has made great achievements with the age groups in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Shehri had a football career as a midfielder, during which he played for several clubs and participated with the national team in the 1999 FIFA Youth World Cup, before moving into coaching, where he achieved great success. .
Early in his training career, Al Shehri moved from training at schools in the Eastern Province to working with the age group teams of Al Qadisiyah, Al Nasr, Al Nahda and Al Ittifaq clubs.
He then made his first appearance for the national teams as assistant coach of the U-20 youth team in 2012, and his first appearance as a national team coach came in 2015 when he led the U-19 team to the final. 2016 Asian Under-19 Championship before losing to Japan on penalties.
Al Shehri then worked with the same team during the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup and led them to the round of 16 before returning to clubs and leading Al Ettifak to fourth place in the ranking. Saudi league season 2017-2018.
But the temptation to work with age groups returned again, so that Al-Shehri was named coach of the Under-23 team in March 2018, and Al-Shehri managed the Saudi Arabia team that participated in the 2018 Asian Games, where the team reached the quarter-finals before decisively returning to the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship in Thailand when he finished second and qualified for the Tokyo Olympics for the first time since the 1996 Olympics.
This tournament was dominated by South Korea in the original time of the final match before the latter won in extra time.
And now Al Shehri is looking to catch up on two Asian finals by winning the 2022 Under-23 Asian Cup in Uzbekistan. For his part, Al-Madina met with a number of national coaches to shed light on the Saudi achievement, which fell exclusively into Saudi hands and acquired special value.
coach on time
At the beginning, the national coach and lecturer of the Federation of Saudi Arabia and Asia, Bandar Al-Jaytin, said: “Perhaps what Saad Al-Shehri presented at the Asian Championships is an achievement for the country, as well as for the national coach, who whenever he has opportunity is always on time.
He continued: “This achievement made us remember our coaches who have made great strides led by Saudi Dean of Coaches, Captain Khalil Al Zayani, Muhammad Al Harashi, Khaled Al Karoni, Abdul Aziz Al Khaled and even young names today present themselves clearly, the latest being Saad al-Shehri and Saleh al-Mohammadi.”
He added: “We must acknowledge the great support given by the Ministry of Sports and with it the Football Association, especially the Technical Committee, which is working on the training and qualification of a large number of national coaches and has given them an excellent opportunity to control Sunni clubs. What the coach received before were foreign coaches without credentials, they only came from offices to receive funds, and as a result there was no technical return and financial losses of the clubs and their overburdened debts.
Of course, last season, the Portuguese coach José Mourinho was present and praised the work of the national coach and spoke frankly: it is better that all age groups are looked after by local coaches, because they are close to the young players and know the environment. This is an experience that we see in all countries that excel in sports.
I end my talk about the national coach for today. Everyone should support the Saudi Arabian coach and give him the opportunity, as is the case with a foreign coach. Also, we should stay away from club trends and slogans when the national coach is with the national team. We should be professionals in every sense of the word, but I repeat the praise for the captain. Saad Al Shehri, who faced a lot of pressure during and before the tournament, responded almost from inside the stadium.
National capacity
As for Hamad Al-Dosari, former coach of Al-Qadisiya Club, he began his speech by congratulating coach Saad Al-Shehri on his achievement in the Olympic team and said: “This achievement was achieved through joint efforts and good planning of official persons. in this team, and the most beautiful thing about this achievement is that it was achieved by the national coach Saad Al Shehri, The one who presented the real possibilities of the Saudi coach and his presence on the stage, despite the attempts of some to reduce this work.
Al-Dosari continued: “There is nothing difficult for the Saudi coach and all he needs is the trust of the officials and giving him the opportunity to introduce himself.
He added: “Here we must acknowledge that we have talents in all areas and in the field of training we have many qualified coaches, starting with the mighty coach Khalil Al Zayani who achieved the first achievement for Saudi football at Al-Ittifaq Club level. and the Saudi Arabian team.
The biggest obstacles
As for the national coach, Ahmed Al-Khanfoush, who previously worked at Al-Ettifak’s technical staff, told Al-Madina: the national team, which he demonstrated with the achievement of coach Saad Al-Shehri.
He spoke about his experience at Al-Ettifak, which he called good and useful, and noted that the coach of the national team needs to hone his skills and the trust of the club leaders, as well as the last session, in which a number of former players participated, which recently held in Riyadh, is considered good and bodes well for the Saudi coach and support for the national coach.
And he ended the conversation with Le Madina: The country is full of sports talents, and in our country there are great potentials that lack only support, no less and no more.