Heavy Pro League presence in Saudi Arabia's FIFA World Cup 2026 squad
Saudi Arabia manager Georgios Donis has announced his 26-man squad for FIFA World Cup 2026.
After a difficult AFC qualifying campaign that began with Roberto Mancini at the helm and ended with the return of Herve Renard, Georgios Donis has now been appointed as Saudi Arabia boss and the Greek has named his 26-man Green Falcons squad for this summer.
25 of the 26 players selected by the former Al Khaleej boss are playing their football in the Saudi Pro League with the only man playing abroad being versatile defender Saudi Abdulhamid, who spent the second-half of this season on loan at Ligue 1 runners’ up Lens from Serie A giants Roma.
There are some notable names coming from the Pro League, though, headlined by captain Salem Al Dawsari and his Al Hilal teammates Mohamed Kanno and Nasser Al Dawsari.
Salem Al Dawsari scored the winning goal in their famous 2-1 victory against eventual champions Argentina at FIFA World Cup 2022 with the player who equalised in that game, Al Ittihad’s Saleh Al Shehri, also once again a part of the squad.
Al Shehri will be fighting for the likely one starting spot up-front with Al Ahli’s Firas Al Buraikan and Abdullah Al Hamdan, a teammate of Cristiano Ronaldo at Al Nassr.
Alongside the aforementioned Abdulhamid at the back, Saudi Arabia boast some experience with Hassan Al Tambakti and Abdulelah Al Amri, while 26-year-old Nawaf Al Aqidi is fighting for the gloves with the Mohammed Al Owais.
The biggest and most notable exclusion from the squad is perhaps Salman Al Faraj but it isn’t too much of a surprise as the versatile midfielder was missing from their extended preliminary squad.
