Green Mancini… Has the adult era reached the end of the journey?
Italian Roberto Mancini, the coach of the Saudi national team, surprised the sports street with a squad devoid of some elements of experience and dominated by young faces. The most prominent thing was the presence of Talal Haji, who may become the second youngest player in the history of the Saudi national team if he participates officially.
The Saudi Greens are preparing to begin their official journey under the leadership of Mancini, when they host Pakistan in the city of Al-Ahsa next Thursday, in the second round of the joint Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup.
The Saudi national team will pack its bags, hosting the Jordan national team in the second round of the qualifiers on November 21 at the Amman International Stadium.
Mancini’s list, which was revealed on Friday, included 28 players led by the goalkeeping quartet without any change, in the presence of Mohammed Al Owais and next to him Nawaf Al Aqidi, who was excluded from the last list and the presence of Mohammed Al Rubaie as his replacement, while Raghed Al Najjar continued to attend, as well as the young goalkeeper Hamed Youssef, who is attending for the first time. Second on the green list after Portugal’s last camp.
Al-Faraj continued for years as the leader of Al-Akhdar. Did he reach the end of the journey with Mancini? (The Middle East)
The new list of the Italian Mancini witnessed the presence of eight names for the first time in the squad, and they are Walid Al-Ahmad, Aoun Al-Salouli, Moaz Faqihi, Abbas Al-Hassan, Mohamed Maran, Abdullah Redeef, Talal Haji, and Fawaz Al-Saqour, who returned to the list again after his presence for the first time in the last days of the Frenchman Renard, who summoned the player to the Jeddah camp. Last March.
Mancini’s list was devoid of captain Salman Al-Faraj, who suffered a recent injury and missed participating with his team, Al-Hilal, despite his return in the last days of group training.
But what is striking about the latest Saudi Green list is the exit of Sultan Al-Ghannam, Muhammad Kanno, and Firas Al-Braikan, in addition to Abdullah Al-Hamdan and Fahd Al-Mawlid, and this quintet was present from the first list in September, through October, before exiting the current list.
Italian Mancini’s intentions to remove the quintet from his list, in addition to leader Salman Al-Faraj, did not appear, but these names have been continuously present on the list for several years.
According to the list that was announced, Yasser Al-Shahrani, Walid Al-Ahmad, Aoun Al-Saluli, Ali Al-Bulaihi, Abdul-Ilah Al-Omari, Hassan Timbukti, Saud Abdul-Hamid, Moaz Faqihi, and Hassan Kadesh were present in the defense line, and in the middle of the field, Mukhtar Ali, Abdul-Ilah Al-Maliki, Ali Hazazi, Eid Al-Mawlid, and Nasser were present. Al-Dosari, Faisal Al-Ghamdi, Abbas Al-Hassan, Salem Al-Dosari, Abdul Rahman Gharib, and Ayman Yahya.
As for the front, Saleh Al-Shehri continued to attend, and next to him was the young trio Mohammed Maran, Abdullah Radif and Talal Haji.
Talal Haji is the youngest of the organizing names of the Green Battalion (the Saudi national team)
It is noteworthy that there are 12 players under the age of 24 in the latest list revealed by Mancini, which is a bold step before entering the official matches.
Talal Haji is the youngest name on Mancini’s list, as he is 16 years old, and he seems on his way to becoming the second youngest player to participate in the history of the Saudi national team if he participates against Pakistan or even Jordan.
According to the Saudi national team’s website, Ahmed Jameel is considered the youngest player to participate with the Saudi national team, at the age of 16 years and 53 days, followed second by Khaled Massad at the age of 16 years and 87 days, then Abdul Rahman Al-Roumi at the age of 16 years and 117 days, and fourth is Zaki Al-Saleh, who participated at the age of 16 years and 87 days. 17 years and 88 days, and in fifth place in terms of the youngest players participating in the history of the Saudi national team is Fouad Anwar, as he represented Al-Akhdar at the age of 17 years and 346 days.
It is expected that Talal Haji will write his name as the second youngest player in the history of the Saudi national team if he participates in either of the two matches, as he will be 16 years and 61 days old by the day of Al-Akhdar’s match against Pakistan.
As for the second youngest name included in Mancini’s list, he is the player Hamed Youssef, who is 18 years old, and his first presence on the Portugal camp list, last October, while Abbas Al-Hassan is the third youngest player in attendance, as he is 19 years old and has succeeded in participating continuously with his team, Al-Fateh. This season.
Excluding Keno was one of the notable decisions made by the Italian coach (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Young names continue to be present on Mancini’s list, as Abdullah Redeef is 20 years old, Moaz Faqihi is 21 years old, and the quartet, Muhammad Maran, Faisal Al-Ghamdi, Ayman Yahya, and Eid Al-Mawlid, are 22 years old, while goalkeeper Nawaf Al-Aqidi is 23 years old, and the quartet, Walid Al-Ahmad, Hassan Timbukti, and Saud, are present. Abdel Hamid is among the 24-year-old players.
Italian coach Mancini started his journey with the Saudi national team in an imperfect manner, losing three friendly matches and drawing one.
The Saudi Greens’ journey began with the new coach in the Newcastle camp last September, in which they played two friendly matches against Costa Rica and lost by three goals to a goal scored by Ali Al-Bulaihi, before losing their friendly match against South Korea with a single goal without a response. Mancini made extensive substitutions in the Saudi Green roster for the camp in the Portuguese city of Lagos last October, as they tied with Nigeria with a positive score of 2-2. The goals of Al-Akhdar were scored by Salman Al-Faraj and Mohammed Kanno, before Al-Akhdar lost to Mali by three goals against a goal scored by Salem Al-Dosari.
Mancini is racing against time to make a great start and achieve the first victory, in search of reaching the final form of the green before competing in the 2023 Asian Cup, which will be hosted by the Qatari capital, Doha, next January.
The Saudi national team participates in Group Six of the Asian Cup, which includes the teams of Thailand, Kyrgyzstan and Oman alongside it.
2023-11-12 08:44:34
#AlJaghiman #asteroids #excuses #repeated.. #refuse #blame #Gerrard
