Full name | Al Shabab Football Club |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | Al Leith (White Lion ) The Sheikh (Chief) |
Founded | 1947 |
Ground |
King Fahd Stadium Riyadh, Saudi Arabia |
Capacity | 62,685 |
Chairman | Abdullah Al Qurini |
Manager | Sami Al-Jaber |
League | Professional League |
2015–16 | Professional League, 6th |
Website | Club home page |
Al-Shabab FC (Arabic: نادي الشباب) is a Saudi Arabian professional football club based in Riyadh. It was founded in 1947, and was named at first Shabab Al Riyadh, but later in 1967 was named Al Shabab. Al Shabab club has produced prominent players such as Saeed Al-Owairan who scored the crucial goal for Saudi Arabia against Belgium in the 1994 World Cup. Also Fuad Amin, who scored Saudi Arabia's first World Cup goal against Netherlands. Al Shabab is also known for selling many players to other Saudi clubs, as Reda Tukar (Ittihad) and Abdulaziz AlKhatran (Al-Hilal).
Al Shabab was the first football club in Riyadh. The club began in 1947, with many conflicts before with its numerous members, but it was settled in 1947 and Abdulrahman Bin Saeed was the president. Five years later, Al Shabab won its first tournament beating Sakit Al Hadeed (Railway Club) in Riyadh. Three years later, in 1955 Al Shabab beat the Military College to win the King Saud Cup. Two years passed, and a new conflict arose in 1957. The player, Saleh Jaber, was assigned captain, but then was fired, and the new captain was Ahmed Lmfoon. This did not please some members of the club. Soon the conflict was impossible to solve, and Abdulrahman Bin Saeed and some members, left Al Shabab and created a new football club, which is the club known today as Al-Hilal. The club stopped for half a year due to financial weakness after the departure of its founder Abdulrahman Bin Saeed. Then in the beginning of 1959 another problem began, Abdullah Bin Ahmed, the president then, was all alone taking care of the club. He couldn't take the pressure of handling the club alone, and decided to take a vacation abroad. Before traveling, he disbanded the first team, and most of the players signed for other clubs mainly Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal. What was left was the youth team, and the player Abdulrahman Bin Ahmed decided to take care of the youth team. Soon Abdullah Bin Ahmed returned, and many members returned and supported the club. Then Abdullah Bin Ahmed announced the return of forming the first team, and some players returned, but some stayed at Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal. Also in 1959 was the formation of the Saudi Football Federation, and all football clubs were announced official. In 1960 in the first official tournament called King Saud Cup for the Central Province, Al Shabab faced Al Hilal in their first official games between the two, and won 3–0 to win their first cup.