Al Hilal active departmentsFootball(men's)Football(women's)Basketball(men's)
Al-Hilal Saudi Football Club () commonly known simply as Al-Hilal, is a Saudi Arabian professional multi-sports club based in Riyadh. Its football team competes in the Saudi Pro League. The name "Al-Hilal" is Arabic for "the crescent moon". Founded on 16 October 1957, the club is one of three teams to have participated in every season of the Saudi Pro League since its establishment in 1976.
In domestic competitions, Al-Hilal are the most successful Saudi club, having won a record 21 league titles, along with a record 13 Crown Prince Cup titles, seven Saudi Federation Cup titles, 10 King's Cup titles, five Saudi Super Cups, and the Saudi Founder's Cup.
In continental competitions, the club has won a record eight AFC trophies, including four AFC Champions League titles (1991, 2000, 2019, 2021), two Asian Cup Winners' Cups (1997, 2002), and two Asian Super Cups (1997, 2000).
Internationally, Al-Hilal have made multiple appearances in the FIFA Club World Cup and were runners-up in the 2022 edition, becoming the first Asian club from outside the host nation to reach the final.
In September 2009, Al-Hilal was awarded Greatest Asian Club of the 20th Century by the IFFHS. Al-Hilal has a market value of €242.5 million as of 2024, the highest in Saudi Arabia.
History The idea of establishing the club began when the ranks of the Youth Club witnessed in 1957 a serious division among its leaders, which prompted Mr. Abdul Rahman bin Saeed to resign from the presidency of the Youth Club in that year, and many left with him, including a number of prominent players.
The opportunity was ripe for the establishment of a new club at the first-class level to serve Saudi sports, and this was already done when a new club was established on 15 October 1957 in Riyadh. The club's name lasted for only one year before it was changed to its current name on 3 December 1958 by King Saud. He changed the name after he attended a tournament that was contested between the Olympic Club, Al Shabab, Al Riyadh and Al-Kawkab clubs. As soon as the club's establishment, Al-Hilal enjoyed not only grassroots support but also royal attention.
After spending their formative years building a squad, the club made their first mark by lifting the King's Cup trophy in 1961. Al-Hilal won the King's Cup again in 1964, with a penalty shootout victory over two-time Asian champions Al Ittihad. The club also won the Crown Prince Cup in 1963–64.
The club were the inaugural winners when the Saudi Premier League came into existence in the 1976–77 season. Al Hilal also won the league title in 1978–79.
With the success, a number of players and coaches from outside Saudi Arabia joined the club in the 1970s, including Brazilian legends Mario Zagallo and Rivellino.
Sustained success (1980–1990) In the 1980s, the club hired Saudi Arabian players such as the figurehead defender Saleh Al-Nu'eimeh who captained both Al Hilal and the Saudi National Football Team, and promoted the player maker Yousuf Al-Thunayan and the young forward Sami Al-Jaber. The club went on to win four league titles as well as four kings cup titles in ten years, two of those being season double's. Al Hilal were the runners-up in the Asian club Championship twice. They were second after the round-robin in the final round in 1986. They reached the final the following year in 1987, but Yomiuri were crowned the champion automatically as Al Hilal were unable to field a team for the final due to nine of the starting players being chosen for the Saudi team's preparation camp that clashed with the date fixed for the first leg.
Continental dominance (1991–2002) The 1990s marked a shift in the dominant teams challenging for the title, such as the emergence of Al Shabab as a new contender and force in the league. As well as the resurgence of bitter rivals Al Nassr and Al Ittihad made the league become contested and shared between the four, Al Hilal achieved 23 titles during this period (1995–96, 1997–98, 2001–02). The club continued to churn out talent from its academy with players such as Nawaf Al-Temyat, Mohammed Al-Shalhoub, Abdallah Al-Jamaan, Ahmad Al-Dokhi as well as Zambian defender Elijah Litana. Al Hilal's continental spoil's during this period defined the clubs identity, decadence and standing in the Asian continent for years to come. The first of which came in 1991 when the club won their first Asian title, the Asian Club Championship, beating Iranian club Esteghlal in penalties in the final. In 1997 the Asian Cup Winners Cup and Asian super cup were also obtained. The club won the Asian Club Championship again in 1999–2000, when they scored an equaliser in the 89th minute and won the match against Japanese club Júbilo Iwata in the extra-time, with the final being one of the most exciting and competitive in the competition's history; A super cup was also achieved in the same year. Finally the last of the Asian titles to be secured in this era was the 2002 Cup Winners Cup.
League duopoly (2003–2011) At the turn of the century the historic rivalry between Al Hilal and Al Ittihad had reached levels never seen before in Saudi football. Historically, since their first meeting, Al Hilal/Al Ittihad matches have always been aggressive and passion filled spectacles that drew huge crowds due to both teams being from the two major Saudi cities of Riyadh and Jeddah. Each team represented different cities, backgrounds and values. Al Hilal is based in Riyadh the capital of Saudi Arabia, in addition to having traditional Najdi values the club is most commonly supported by the upper and middle class and also enjoyed royal attention. While on the other hand, Al-Ittihad is based in the port city of Jeddah and is commonly supported by the lower and middle class as well as non-Saudi natives giving it the nickname "the people's club". Both teams dominated this era of Saudi football history. Al Hilal won the title/s in (2004–05, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11). Al Ittihad's golden generation in this period of time equaled Al Hilal's two AFC Champions League titles, as well as winning the league title/s in (2000–01, 2002–03, 2006–07, 2008–09). This resulted in both teams exchanging winner and runner-up positions almost every season in the league for ten years with the exception of two seasons.
The pinnacle moment of the era was in the 2007–08 season when Al Ittihad was leading the table the whole season with Al Hilal always right behind in second, the final match day pitted both teams against each other in the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah with Al-Ittihad needing a draw at the minimum to clinch the league title at home. Al Ittihad were the clear favourites due to their much superior quality and home advantage. The match began with Al Ittihad leading in possession and attacking opportunities but to no avail. In the 49th minute Ahmed Al-Fraidi crossed the ball from the edge of the box, to which Yasser Al-Qahtani skimmed with a header to the right bottom corner of the goal giving Al Hilal a 1–0 lead four minutes after half time. Al-Ittihad frantically tried to equalise with an abundance of shots but Mohamed Al-Deayea goalkeeping heroics the whole match denied them the goal they so desperately needed, and even more so after Al Qahtani's goal. The referee finally blew the whistle and Al Hilal were crowned the league champions in Jeddah, and under whose management of Cosmin Olăroiu was coupled with the Crown Prince Cup finishing the season with a double. The league is commonly known and remembered with the nickname (Arabic: شعره ياسر) which roughly translates to "Yasser's hair" due to the winning goal being scored when the ball skimmed by Yasser's header veering the ball towards the goal. What made the occasion even more special is that the opposite outcome happened the previous season when Al Ittihad clinched the league title in the last minutes.
Before the beginning of the 2009–10 season Eric Gerets was hired as the new Al Hilal manager. Under his management Al Hilal tactically adopted a very attacking style, combining an already talented local group of players with star foreign players such as the versatile South Korean right back Lee Young-pyo, the powerful and dominant defensive midfielder Mirel Rădoi, the speedy Swedish winger Christian Wilhelmsson and the technically gifted Brazilian attacking midfielder Thiago Neves. This blend of local and foreign talent guided by a tactically astute manager dominated the league and were crowned champions with three games to spare, a crown prince cup was also won in the same season. In the following 2010–11 season Al Hilal continued to dominate domestically and continentally until their semi-final exit from the 2010 AFC Champions League, shortly following their exit Eric Gerets left to become the new head coach of the Morocco national football team. After Gerets's departure Gabriel Calderon took over as head coach of Al Hilal and finished the updated 14 team league as undefeated champion with 19 wins and 7 draws, becoming the second team to achieve this feat after Al Ettifaq. The season also finished with a double as the Crown Prince Cup was defended.
Struggle at the continental stage (2012–2018) After their back-to-back league titles and generally consistent success in the domestic front, Al Hilal always seemed to come up short in their continental pursuit since their last triumph in the 1999–2000 campaign. Adding to an already aging local core and departing key players, Al Hilal was in a transition period to rebuild the team that was able to challenge domestically and in the Champions league. Al Hilal reached the final of AFC Champions League in 2014, 14 years after their last appearance in the final. This time they faced Western Sydney Wanderers. The Australian club won 1–0 on aggregate. During this period of time Al Hilal was not able to win the league title for five seasons beginning from the 2011–12 to the 2015–16 season, finishing runner up in three of those seasons, and was only able to achieve five cup titles: Crown Prince cup (2011–12, 2012–13, 2015–16), King cup (2015) and a Super cup (2015) Against arch rivals Al-Nasser held at Loftus Road Stadium, in London.
At the start of the 2016–17 season a string of bad results caused Gustavo Matosas to be sacked and replaced by Ramón Díaz. Diaz's reorganised the tactical shape and style of play in which the team was engaging with as well as the conditioning his players to quickly grasp his philosophy. Taking advantage of the fact that throughout the generations Al Hilal's success largely came from academy players as well as key signings, which the squad already possessed but the group was not in sync or able to reach their true potential. Players such as goalkeeper Abdullah Al-Mayouf was brought back From Al-Ahli because of his distribution abilities, right and left backs Yasser Al-Shahrani and Mohammed Al-Breik were good in chance creation and also in attacking output. Salem Al-Dawsari was talented but unpolished player when he was promoted to the first team in 2011, but has matured to become a key player. These player became the spine of the team and an integral part of Al Hilal squad for years to come. The managerial replacement radically changed the team's performance by playing possession-based attacking football which the aforementioned players turned out to be very adept to. Al Hilal finished the season as champions of the league and King cup with the former being achieved with record points in a season.