Saudi ‘rugby guy’ raising profile of sport in Kingdom

DHAHRAN: Ali Aldajani never thought that one day he would become well-known in his country as “the rugby guy.” As president of the Saudi Arabian Rugby Federation the 29-year-old has fond memories of his early years in the game and pride in how much the sport means to him today. Growing up in the Kingdom, Aldajani was always an athlete. He played football, tennis, basketball, and took part in track and field events.

When he moved to Canada at the age of 14, he decided to delve into a contact sport. Since his school did not have an American football team, he decided to try rugby. After four months of training, he started to lose interest in the game — until he played his first match.

After that, he was hooked on the sport and the community behind it. He dropped his other sports to focus on rugby and when he returned to the Kingdom after finishing school, decided to stick with it. He told Arab News: “When I came back in 2019, at the time, I was playing with Bahrain rugby, semi-professionally, and I heard that the Saudi rugby committee had been dissolved.

“I was approached by someone who works with the Olympic committee about taking on the role as president, and, at the time, I was 26. I really wasn’t sure what I was able to do or what I could do, but I just knew that I liked the sport so decided to give it a try,” he said. Expats and Saudis have been playing rugby in private compounds after work since the 1970s.

Aldajani said the majority of them were businessmen, lawyers, and other professionals. “If you look at Saudi Arabia’s position in any sport within the Gulf Cooperation Council, we have probably the biggest ratio of nationals to non-nationals. When you look at other countries like the UAE and Kuwait, a lot of those