French coach Hervé Renard, coach of the Saudi national team, announced the final “Al-Akhdar” squad, with which he will participate in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
At the top of the list, which included 26 players, were attackers Saleh Al-Shehri and captain Salman Al-Faraj.
The French coach included the midfielder, Al-Faraj, who scored against Egypt in the 2018 World Cup, after doubts about his injury were dispelled in a friendly match against Iceland a few days ago, as well as Al-Shehri, who returned from a long injury.
The striker, Fahd Al-Muwallad, was excluded from the list announced by Renard "as a precautionary measure" due to the doping issue, and the player Nawaf Al-Abed was chosen instead, according to what was announced by the Saudi national team's account on Twitter.
The Saudi national team list came as follows:
Goalkeepers: Muhammad Al-Owais (Al-Hilal), Muhammad Al-Yami (Al-Ahly), and Nawaf Al-Aqidi (Al-Nasr).
Defense: Sultan Al-Ghannam, Abdullah Al-Omari, Abdullah Mado (Al-Nasr), Muhammad Al-Buraik, Ali Al-Bulayhi, Saud Abdul-Hamid, Yasser Al-Shahrani (Al-Hilal), Hassan Al-Tambukti (Al-Shabab).
The middle: Salman Al-Faraj, Salem Al-Dosari, Muhammad Kno, Nasser Al-Dosari, Abdullah Atif, Abdul-Ilah Al-Maliki (Al-Hilal), Abdul Rahman Al-Aboud (Al-Ittihad), Sami Al-Naji and Ali Al-Hassan (Al-Nasr), Hattan Bahbari (Al-Shabab) and Riyadh Sharahili (Abha).
Attack: Saleh Al-Shehri (Al-Hilal), Firas Al-Buraikan (Al-Fateh), Haitham Asiri (Al-Ahly), and Nawaf Al-Abed (Al-Shabab).
Al-Akhdar will start on Sunday, November 12, the fourth stage of its preparation program for the World Cup, as it will resume its training in the capital, Riyadh, after the rest that the coach gave the players for two days after returning from a camp in Abu Dhabi.
The Saudi national team will play its last international friendly match against Croatia next Wednesday.
Saudi matches in the 2022 World Cup
The 2022 World Cup will witness the sixth participation of the Saudi national team in the World Cup, and Al-Akhdar will play in Group C, and will start its tournament against Argentina on November 22, 2022 at Lusail Stadium.
In the second confrontation, the Saudi national team will face its Polish counterpart on November 26 at the Education City Stadium, before concluding the group stage by meeting Mexico on November 30 at Lusail Stadium.
The Saudis are counting on the current generation, which presented a distinguished career in the qualifiers in order to repeat the achievement of the 1994 World Cup in America, and to pass the first round.