Saudi football chief praises ‘intelligent leader’ Renard, promises Jeddah party after World Cup qualification

SHARJAH: Twenty months after the arrival of Herve Renard as Saudi Arabia national team manager, it was a night for everyone involved in Saudi football to revel in the joy of reaping the rewards of months of hard work, culminating in a second consecutive qualification to the FIFA World Cup.

Not since South Korea/Japan 2002 and Germany 2006 have the Green Falcons made it to the finals on two consecutive occasions, but at Sharjah Stadium on Thursday evening, the Saudi Arabia bus arrived for the clash against China carrying a buoyant squad, safe in the knowledge that their place in Qatar 2022 had been booked before a ball was kicked, thanks to Japan’s 2-0 victory over Australia earlier in the day.

“Fortune favors the brave,” according to the old Latin saying, and brave indeed were the Saudi players who navigated the battles of two-and-a-half years of the qualifiers journey that started in September 2019 with a hard-fought 2-2 draw against Yemen, a game that needed the Green Falcons to come from behind on two occasions.

That night in Bahrain may seem a moment of distant history now, but along every step of the journey, it was vividly present in the mind of Saudi Arabian Football Federation President Yasser Al-Misehal whose tears of joy told the tale of a man basking in the glory of achieving something he, and many working under him, have worked toward since his election to the post in 2019.

“We were not watching the (Japan versus Australia) game. It was lunchtime, so we were having lunch with the team,” Al-Misehal said, recounting how the news of Saudi Arabia’s progress to Qatar 2022 was received at the Green Falcons’ camp.

“After lunch, it was the last minutes of the game and we heard the sounds of the coaching and