Al-Diriyah, the True Saudi Home is the New Rising Football Club in the Gulf Country
Al-Diriyah just won the Saudi third tier, and has an ambitious sports project, fueled by PIF.
There is a new rising team in Saudi football: no, it is not Neom SC, who in the next season will play in the Pro Legue, after an impressive climbing from the third tier; its name is Al-Diriyah, a Riyadh-based club well connected with the political and economic power of the country. Monday 14th April Al-Diriyah won the final of the Saudi Second Division (that is actually the third tier) against Al-Ula, and in 2025/26 season will be play in higher level, heading to gain another promotion and secure a place in the Saudi Pro League.
Yet, this is not a football fairy tale. Although Al-Diriyah has existed since 1976, last summer it entered in the orbit of PIF: on July 12, it was bought by Diriyah Company, which is controlled by the Public Investment Fund (who already owns directly four top tier clubs in Saudi Arabia - Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahli, Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal - and the Newcastle United in England).
Those kind of acquisitions have always a political purpose. The first four club bought in June 2023 served to fuel the plan of a great football league known throughout the world. Neom SC is rising to the top tier to be an image of the new futuristic and ambitious Neom project. Even Al-Diriyah is at the center of a major urban and financial renewal strategy, but it has also an historical and highly symbolical importance: Diriyah is the ancestral hometown of the Saudi royal family.
The historical and political roots of Al-Diriyah
Diriyah is a town at the North-West periphery of Riyadh, where is located one of the most important historical site of all Saudi Arabia, the Turaif District, inscribed in UNESCO World Heritage List in 2010. It was the first capital of the Al Saud dinasty, until in 1818 the Ottomans besieged it and gained the control of the Hejaz region. Diriyah was mostly abandoned, and the Saudi family left Turaif to transfer in Riyadh. But in 2000, under King Fahd bin Abdulaziz, the government started an expensive restoration project, which led to UNESCO recognition.
Today, Diriyah and its legacy are a crucial part of Saudi Vision 2030, heading to become a world-class tourist spot. “A massive complex on the outskirts of Riyadh filled with parks, restaurants and coffee shops, hundreds of laborers are rehabilitating mud palaces once home to the Saud family and building museums celebrating its history” wrote Ben Hubbard in 2015 on The New York Times. The purpose is not just to create another luxury tourist destination, but to reinforce the Saudi nationalist narrative. 10 years ago, this project had an estimated cost of $500 million, and it is now run by two theoretically different institutions: the Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA) and the Diriyah Company.
But the same two name figures at the top of their rispective boards: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (Chairman of the Board) and Jerry Inzerillo (Group Chief Executive Officer). The DGDA was established in 2017 and then gave birth to the Diriyah Company; in 2018, Inzerillo - former CEO of Forbes Travel Guide - made his entrance in the project, stating that Diriyah will become “the Beverly Hills of Riyadh”. Compared to the gigantic idea of The Line, Diriyah is just 14 km², but it declares expeting more than 50 million visitors by 2030, and it has signed partnership with major companies all around the world: Armani, Ritz-Carlton, Raffles, Pantone, Starbucks, Dolce&Gabbana, Apple, and so on.
Sport is a key factor in this plan. In 2018 the area hosted the Diriyah ePrix, the first Formula E race to be held in the Middle East, and the event lasted for six consecutive editions, until it was transferred to Jeddah in 2025. In 2019 the Diriyah Arena, a 15,000-seats outdoor purpose-built venue, was inaugurated with the highly anticipated boxing match between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jr., for which Saudi authorities paid $41 million. On 26 February 2023, the Arena hosted one of the most discussed sporting events of recent years: the boxing match between Tommy Fury and the YouTuber Jake Paul. So, in Summer 2024, Diriyah project decided to get his hands on football too.
The rising of Al-Diriyah FC
The acquisition of the Al-Diriyah FC by the PIF-backed Diriyah Company “will support the realization of the Company’s strategic objectives, including the development and enhancement of the Diriyah region as a cultural, tourism, entertainment, and sporting destination” said the press release. In 49 years of existence, the team never played in the Saudi top division and won the title of the third tier in 2013, that is its only achievement. In the 2023/24 season, Al-Diriyah FC failed the promotion, being defeated in the play-offs by Al-Zulfi.
But with the new owner everything changed. On the bench was called the 39-years-old Portugues coach Fabiano Flora, who worked in the youth sector of Lazio, Manchester United, Benfica and Juventus, and in previous season reached a surprisingly promotion in the Saudi Pro League leading Al-Kholood. The PIF started heavy investments in transfers to create a top team: they signed Brazilian midfielder Arthur Rezende, a coach's favourite, and a bunch of Saudi players from the Pro League (Taher Wadi from Al-Qadsiah; Khalid Al-Asiri from Al-Shabab; Bader Munshi, Andulaziz Al-Shahrani and Hassan Al-Shamrani from Damac FC; Hassan Al-Habib from Al-Okhdood; former Saudi Arabia national team Waleed Abdullah from Al-Nassr; and Jaber Qarradi from Al-Ettifaq).
To boost the quality of its team, Al-Diriyah bought in three other foreign players with important experience in European football, such as the 31-years-old Spanish right winger Agi Dambelley and the 36-years-old Cape Verdean striker Júlio Tavares, who scored 80 goals in 269 matches between Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 with Dijon. The big star of the transfer campaign was Moussa Marega, 33-years-old Malian forward who scored 72 goals in 190 matches for Porto and in 2021 won of the AFC Champions League with Saudi club Al-Hilal. Marega had already scored 10 goals in the current season for Al-Diriyah.
But the real big signings of this emerging Saudi team was Dougie Freedman, who last March accepted to leave his role as sporting director at Crystal Palace, in the Premier League, to start working at Al-Diriyah. The 50-years-old former Scottish striker took up the job at Palace in 2017, stabylizing the Eagles as one of the most important teams in England and discovering players like Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze and Marc Guéhi. Last year he was in talk to transfer to Newcastle, a club controlled by PIF, but refused, and now he is responsible of a Saudi second tier club. His salary was not revealed, but this agreement demonstrates PIF's ambitions to build a team capable of competing among the best in the country, and not only. With professionals like Marega and Freedman, Al-Diriyah FC aims to be the face of the entire Diriyah project.
