JEDDAH, 11 January 2008 — An Ahli diehard all his life Prince Khaled ibn Abdullah has been living a dream since his pet project, Al-Ahli Soccer Academy, opened its doors to the public on June 8, 2005.
The academy, built at a cost of close to SR5 million, is basically one complete package that aspiring football players of various age levels can avail of in their desire to become star material to benefit both club and country.
Student population at the academy is being kept at a viable 300 as per the directives of Saudi Football Federation. But when the academy opened for the first batch of students there were 10,000 candidates that applied for admission. After the screening process to pick only those qualified about 250 were selected.
Everyone familiar with the Ahli way agrees that the academy is a dream come true not only for Prince Khaled but also for soccer stakeholders in the Kingdom.
Prince Khaled is enjoying his role at Ahli Soccer Academy, where he sits as president of the board of trustees. He spends more time at the academy monitoring every single detail from his seat inside his glass-walled office building and keeping an eye on the young future stars of Ahli club.
Prince Khaled’s association with Ahli club goes back a long way.
When the prince signed for Ahli club as a football player in the early seventies, Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal ibn Abdul Aziz, an Ahli icon who died in 2006, told him, “We want you Khaled for the future.”
Prince Khaled heeded the request and how. He has since never stopped planning for the future of Ahli club. He continued to support Ahli club in various capacities — as a player, president of the club, honorary member and now as Ahli club academy’s head of the board of trustees.
At the academy is where Prince Khaled has been putting his wealth of experience to good use. He realized that every club needs a strong base and should invest in young players so that they develop and be of service to the club.
The academy is being likened to a tree that starts as a small seed and then grows to become a strong and mature tree that bears fruits. It was the brainchild of Prince Khaled, his gift to the club and fans and Saudi football in general.
The state-of-the art football facility hopes to produce professional footballers that may be tapped for club and national team duties in the country and abroad.
The academy is looking to equip players with a solid foundation by teaching them the fundamentals of football. The academy is unique and first of its kind in the Middle East, in terms of facilities provided to players from football fields to training paraphernalia. Under the tutelage of experts, students will be taught soccer’s various schools of thought with emphasis on the player’s physical and mental shape.
The academy building cost SR3 million and the rest of the cost went to the many football fields. The academy manager is Dr. Mufti Ibrahim, from Egypt, with 20 years of experience. Dr. Mufti said: “My relationship with Saudi football goes back to more than 15 years ago when I started in 1986 as a football coach of the youth team. My relationship with the team strengthened since then, especially with Prince Khaled ibn Abdullah. Prince Khaled talked with me about his dreams of establishing an academy that would cater to development of the youth.”
Prince Khaled recently visited the English Arsenal Academy and met with the French international coach Arsene Wenger. Ahli club academy also recently sent three different age group teams to three different countries for the first time in Saudi club history in an effort to give the youngsters experience in international matches and get used to playing and traveling abroad. Prince Khaled also sent the academy manager to Brazil to learn the latest update in football academy and to also attract new football coaches to come and train in the academy.
David Court, assistant Academy Director and former Gunners star, received Prince Khaled at the Arsenal Academy, where the visiting Saudi prince was given a tour inside the academy to get first-hand knowledge how such an establishment operates and use the same to improve Ahli academy.
The under 15 team held a training camp in Kuwait, under 13 in UAE and under 11 in Qatar. Also, the academy participated in international events last year when its under 13 team traveled to Doha for the West Asia festival and Lyon, France for a tournament.
The academy’s under 15 team crushed their counterparts from Kuwait club 3-0 in the first match, and this was followed by victories against the national Kuwait youth team 7-1 and club team Kuwait 3-2.
The under 13 played friendly matches in UAE. In the first match, the team tied 2-2 against Dubai team. They played Ajman in a doubleheader, winning both matches by 4-0 and 7-3. Against Shabab they lost the first match 6-3 and won the second 2-1.
The under 11 team played twice against Ahli of Qatar. The Saudi Ahli team won the first match 6-2 and the second 4-2. The same team played three other matches, two against Al-Arabi of Qatar, which they both won by 2-1 and 3-2, and one against Aspire academy team that they also won by 2-0.
