JEDDAH: Prince Sultan bin Fahd, president of General Presidency of Youth Welfare, has approved the names of the Saudi national team that will play in the Gulf Cup 19 — Oman 2009.
The names were approved by the Saudi national team coach Naser Al-Jawhar who presented the list to the Youth Welfare Deputy President Prince Nawaf bin Faisal.
The biennial tournament will take place Jan. 4-17 in Muscat. To prepare for the prestigious event the Saudi national team will enter training camp in Dammam and play two friendly matches against Bahrain on Dec. 23 and against Syria on Dec. 29.
The list includes star midfielder Muhammad Nur, who deservedly earned his spot on the team with an excellent performance in the Saudi Professional League, leading Al-Ittihad to the top of the standings from the start of the competition.
The addition of Nur is expected to boost the overall performance of the Kingdom team.
Muhammad Shalhoub, Ahmad Al-Bahri and Faisal Al-Sultan have been ruled out of the team while former national team captain and current Neuchâtel Xamax FC player Hussein Abdul Ghani did not make it due to injury.
Following is the list of players:
Goalkeepers: Waleed Abdullah, Kameel Al-Wabari, and Yaser Al-Musaileem.
Defenders: Reda Tukar, Osama Hawsawi, Majed Al-Marshadi, Osama Al-Muwallad, Kamil Al-Mur, Ibraheem Hazzazi, Rashed Al-Rahib, Abdullah Al-Zuri and Abdullah Shuhail.
Midfielders: Muhammad Nur, Saud Kariri, Ahmad Utaif, Tayseer Al-Jasim, Abdu Utaif, Ahmad Al-Fareedi, Ahmad Al-Mousa, Sultan Al-Nimri, Khaled Aziz, and Abdul Rahman Al-Qahtani.
Strikers: Yaser Al-Qahtani, Malek Muaz, Naif Hazazi, Hasan Al-Raheb and Naser Al-Shamrani.
