Al Fateh Sports Club (Arabic: نادي الفتح الرياضي, romanizednādī al-fataḥ ar-riyāḍiyy, lit.'Conquest Sports Club') is a Saudi Arabian multi-sports club based in Al-Mubarraz, Al-Ahsa. It is mainly known for its professional football club. The club derives its nickname from the fact that almost all of its sections play in the national top flights.

History

Al Fateh have played in the lower divisions for most of their existence, unlike rivals and city neighbours Hajer FC who played in the top flight when they achieved promotions in the 80's, 90's and 2000's. Al Fateh hired Tunisian head coach Fathi Al-Jabal in the middle of the 2007-08 Saudi First Division League, in the 2008–09 season Al-Jabal finished as runners-up to guide Al Fateh to their first ever promotion to the Saudi Professional League. The club managed to stay up in the Saudi Professional League in their first ever top flight season. In the following two seasons the club set out to build a formidable squad, with Al Fateh already possessing talented home grown players such as Hamdan Al-Hamdan and Mohammed Al-Fuhaid, they also acquired the services of Congolese forward Doris Fuakumputu and former Al-Nassr Attacking midfielder Élton.

Saudi League Champions (2012–2013)

Al Fateh pulled off a surprise when on 14 April 2013, they won their first League title, with 2 games to spare, following a 1–0 home win over Al-Ahli. Al Fateh became the seventh club to win the Pro League. This is considered by many to be one of the greatest shocks in Saudi football history, especially considering that Al Fateh were promoted to the Pro League for the first time only four years earlier.[2] This was the first time a club outside the Riyadh and Jeddah clubs to win the Saudi Professional League since the 1986–87 season. Élton won the Player of the Season award by scoring 11 goals and bagging 10 assists, as well as Doris Fuakumputu scoring 17 goals to lead Al Fateh to the title.

Later, they played in the inaugural edition of the Saudi Super Cup to face Al-Ittihad, after 90 minutes the score was a 2–2 draw and the game went into extra time. Élton scored the winning goal of the game in the 111th minute, Al Fateh defeated Al-Ittihad 3–2 after extra time to become the inaugural champions of the Saudi Super Cup.[3]

Al Fateh advanced to the 2014 AFC Champions League group stage in their debut campaign as 2012–13 Saudi Professional League champions, but crashed out of the group stage with a (2D,4L) record and without winning a single match. Al Fateh qualified again to the 2017 AFC Champions League due to Al-Ittihad, the 2015–16 Saudi Professional League 3rd place, could not participate in the AFC Champions League because of club licensing requirements problems. As a result, Al-Taawoun, the league 4th place, entered the group stage instead of the qualifying play-offs, while Al Fateh, the league 5th place, entered the qualifying play-offs.[4] Al Fateh defeated Nasaf Qarshi 1–0 in the Qualifying play-offs to advance to the group stage (Group B).[5]

Honours

League

Current squad

As of January 2025

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
4 DF Saudi Arabia KSA Ziyad Al-Jari
6 MF Saudi Arabia KSA Naif Masoud
7 MF Morocco MAR Amine Sbaï
9 FW Argentina ARG Matías Vargas
11 FW Morocco MAR Mourad Batna
13 DF Saudi Arabia KSA Hussain Qassem
14 MF Saudi Arabia KSA Mohammed Al-Fuhaid (Captain)
15 DF Saudi Arabia KSA Saeed Baattiah
17 DF Morocco MAR Marwane Saâdane
18 MF Saudi Arabia KSA Suhayb Al-Zaid (on loan from Al-Hilal)
21 FW Cape Verde CPV Djaniny
24 DF Saudi Arabia KSA Ammar Al-Daheem
26 GK Saudi Arabia KSA Nawaf Al-Aqidi (on loan from Al-Nassr)
28 MF Algeria ALG Sofiane Bendebka
No. Pos. Nation Player
29 FW Saudi Arabia KSA Ali Al-Masoud
31 GK Saudi Arabia KSA Habib Al-Wotayan
33 MF Comoros COM Zaydou Youssouf
42 DF Saudi Arabia KSA Ahmed Al-Julaydan
44 DF Portugal POR Jorge Fernandes
48 GK Saudi Arabia KSA Muhannad Al-Yahya
49 FW Saudi Arabia KSA Saad Al-Sharfa
55 GK Saudi Arabia KSA Waleed Al-Enezi
63 DF Saudi Arabia KSA Montadhar Al-Shaqaq U19
75 FW Saudi Arabia KSA Mehdi Al-Aboud U19
82 DF Saudi Arabia KSA Hussain Al-Zarie
88 MF Saudi Arabia KSA Othman Al-Othman
94 MF Saudi Arabia KSA Abdullah Al-Anazi
99 FW Brazil BRA Matheus Machado

Other players under contract

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
MF Saudi Arabia KSA Mohammed Al-Sahaihi U19
No. Pos. Nation Player
FW Saudi Arabia KSA Abdulaziz Al-Dabas U19

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK Hungary HUN Péter Szappanos (on loan to Paks)
20 FW Saudi Arabia KSA Abdullah Al-Mogren (on loan to Damac)
No. Pos. Nation Player
40 GK Saudi Arabia KSA Sattam Al-Subaie (on loan to Mudhar)
80 MF Saudi Arabia KSA Faisal Al-Abdulwahed (on loan to Al-Batin)

International competitions

Overview

As of 13 August 2019
Competition Pld W D L GF GA
AFC Champions League Elite 13 2 5 6 11 20
Arab Club Champions Cup 4 2 1 1 7 6
TOTAL 17 4 6 7 18 26

International record

Matches

Season Competition Round Club Home Away Aggregate
2012–13 Arab Club Champions Cup 1R Kuwait Al-Jahra 1–0 2–1 3–1
2R Kuwait Al-Arabi 2–2 2–3 4–5
2014 AFC Champions League Group B Uzbekistan Bunyodkor 0–0 2−3 4th
Iran Foolad 1–5 0−1
Qatar El Jaish 0–0 0−2
2017 AFC Champions League PO Uzbekistan Nasaf Qarshi 1–0 1–0
Group B Iran Esteghlal Khuzestan 1–1 0−1 3rd
Qatar Lekhwiya 2–2 1−4
United Arab Emirates Al Jazira 3–1 0−0

Coaching staff

Position Name
Manager Portugal José Gomes
Assistant manager Portugal Nuno Ferreira
Portugal João Penedo
Egypt Ahmed Magdy
Goalkeeping coach Portugal Vicente
Conditioning coach Portugal João Penedo
Fitness coach Portugal João Espinhosa
Performance analyst Saudi Arabia Omar Al-Amri
Performance manager Germany Michael Pfannkuch
Head of performance England James Purdue
Head of medical Saudi Arabia Hussein Al-Jaffar
Doctor Saudi Arabia Dr. Ihab Al-Hamid
Physiotherapist Saudi Arabia Thamer Al-Ghannad
Director of football Saudi Arabia Abdulkader Al-Aqdi

Managers

Ground

Al-Fateh used to play in Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Sport City before their own stadium "Al-Fateh Stadium" got completely revonted by removing the running track and increasing the capacity from 3500 to 11,000 and redeveloping the gym and every facility.[6]

See also

References

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