Layan Jouhari carries on family legacy for Al-Ittihad and Saudi Arabia

Football clubs the world over are built on the support of their fans.

From the biggest clubs to some of the smallest, tribalism and emotional connection are passed down from grandparents to parents to children.

Stories are told, legends immortalized and cross-generational moments created, adding to the rich fabric of the game.

So it is for 22-year-old Saudi Arabian Layan Jouhari.

Born in the seaside city of Jeddah, she was raised by a family of diehard Al-Ittihad supporters loyal to a club founded almost 100 years ago with with one of the richest histories anywhere in Asia.

Jouhari’s uncle, Ghanayem Al-Harbi, played for Al-Ittihad for almost a decade during the 1960s and ’70s and went on to work as an assistant coach under Carlos Alberto Parreira with the Saudi Arabian national team when the Green Falcons won the AFC Asian Cup in 1988.

“He talks about winning the cup, and there’s a picture of him holding the cup (that) he always shows me,” she said of her uncle.

Her father, Abdulmojeeb, also represented Al-Ittihad, but in different sports, playing both volleyball and table tennis for the Jeddah club.

So it is fair to say Jouhari and her family bleed yellow and black.

“Ittihad is like blood for so many, because it started in 1927, so it’s already one of the oldest clubs in Saudi,” she told Arab News.

“From the beginning my whole heritage is Ittihad, so we’re huge fans of Ittihad.”

Jouhari, part of an emerging generation of female players, has gone one better than just wearing the famous yellow-and-black kit as a fan; she is now wearing it as an Al-Ittihad player, having been signed by her childhood club to be part of their inaugural squad for the first season of the recently completed Saudi Women’s Premier