Inconsistent Al-Hilal drop more points with time running out for title hopes

London: When Ali al-Shabeb begins to speak, his accent of Geordie is unmistakable. Althegh was born in Dammam, Al-Shabeb left Saudi Arabia when he was 8 years old to transfer his family to Newcastle. He went to school there, stayed in the north of England to go to the University of Northumbria, and now he also plays football there, for FC Darlington.

“When I came here for the first time, I didn’t speak an ounce of English,” Al-Shabeb told Arab News. “My dad was studying for his doctorate, so he brought us all Acrosse, but I played football then. I was a tennis player.

“But you can’t grow up in Newcastle without seeing the love and joy that football gives people, and of course I started playing and I kept improving the level I could think about having a career in the game.”

Chosen for the prestigious side of English universities while studying in Northumbria, Al-Shabeb remembers that they face players as former ex-scester United Mason Greenwood and Angel Gomes in youth soccer tournaments.

Al-Shabeb was still in university when he made history in 2021. Playing for the AFC that is not from the AFC League, the young Saudi striker helped his team to reach the final of the FA vase in the Wembley stadium, the iconic house of the National Team of England. Although Cancet lost the last 3-2, Al-Shabeb became the first player of the kingdom to score in Wembley.

“If I am totally honest, I had it at the bottom of my mind the night before,” Al-Shabeb recalled, smiling. “Sitting at the hotel, I remember thinking,” you really have the opportunity to score in Wembley tomorrow. “

“I had no nerves in the game, and then I scored the first goal of the game. It was surreal, incredible. When you think of all the players who have scored goals in Wembley, it is difficult to believe and a hardcomen.

“The only disappointing was that it was the Covid-19 duration, so there were no fans. I would like my family to have bone there and we could have enjoyed playing in front of a great crowd.”

The news of Wembley’s goal returned to the kingdom, and Al-Shabeb are found him being addressed by Saudi clubs on a professional contract.

The most excitation sacrifice of Al-Qadsiah, which then played in the Saudi First Division. Al-Shabeb was ready to sign for the club, but then the agreement failed when an infraction of the groin was identified in his doctor. Since then, Al-Qadsiah has enjoyed a meteoric ascent and is currently third at the Saudi Teacher League and the semifinals of the King Cup.

“It is a pill difficult to swallow if I am totally honest,” Al-Shabeb admitted. “Qadsiah would have been the right environment to improve and develop in Saudi Arabia. But these things happen in football, and I am grateful for the opportunities I have.

“Even so, I honestly believe that if I had signed for Qadsiah, then I would still be there. I think playing in English football has given me knowledge and experience that the Saudi player has.

Al-Shabeb ended up undergoing surgery in his groin and moved to the kingdom in the summer of 2022, joining the Saudi team of the First Al-Sahel division. Later he also played for Al-Qaisumah, with whom he faced Michel’s Al-Qadsiah for winning the title of the Saudi First Division last season.

“It was fun to return home with Saudi Arabia because there were four foreign players in the team, but they all see me as a foreigner more than a Saudi player,” said Al-Shabeb.

“I always take with foreign players, we had Brazilians and Portuguese, because we had much more in common. But, of course, I also speak Arabic, so I really found myself as a bridge between a bridge of a bridge. A bridge a bridge a bridge. A bridge. A bridge. A bridge. When you can be that connection.”

Al-Shabeb fought to find his feet in the country of his birth, and felt that his development was suffocated when the coaches regularly came and came.

“I had no one to take me under their wing to show me the strings,” he said. “I used to ask my coaches how I could develop, but it was more an approach to ‘keep my mouth closed and move on’;

“Things did not click on any of the clubs, and that is why I moved back to Darlington. I needed to recover my love for the game, and that is exactly what has happened.”

In Darlington, Al-Shabeb coach is Steve Watson, former Everton defender, Aston Villa and Newcastle United who spent 14 seasons in the Premier League.

“Steve is a guy who has reached levels that I and my teammates want we can. It is also very honest and direct. He took me without hesitation, and just although I felt pressure from a professional club in Saudi Aabia, he only let me play football.

“Just although we are in a league where teams like to kick it a lot, Steve Esnguena play from behind and play football. That is what is better for me.”

Darlington plays in the North National League, the sixth level of English football, but Al-Shabeb feels that his experiences this season have left him better equipped to return to Saudi Arabia.

“There are some teams that have shown an interest of the Saudi First Division, and that is probably the best step for me at this time,” said Al-Shabkeeb.

“I would obviously love to play in the professional league, but now there are so many great players who move to Saudi Arabia; in the First Division, there are more points in the teams for Saudi, so it is better for me.”

Al-Shabeb admits that it will be an English key to leave Newcastle, his home during most of the last 17 years. But there is still an inextricable bond between the city and Saudi Arabia; Al-Shabeb has seen firsthand how the city has changed its Saudi Public Investment Fund bought Newcastle United in 2021.

“It has an amazing bone like the acquisition,” Al-Shabeb said. “When I arrived in Newcastle for the first time in 2008 and people asked where it was, I would say:” Saudi Arabia “and replied with” Where is that? “

“I remember that I would only say: ‘Near Dubai’, since more people had it as a reference point in the Middle East. There was never any other Saudi in school; we were the only ones.

“But from the acquisition, I have many more Saudi in Newcastle, it is angry. The city gives a lot of love to Saudi Arabia or how well the team is. Now, when people discover that I am from Saudse more.