This is a record of Saudi Arabia's results at the FIFA World Cup. The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.

The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 48 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup final is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.2006 FIFA World Cup TV Coverage (PDF), FIFA.com. Retrieved on June 6, 2007.

Saudi Arabia has qualified for a total of seven World Cup tournaments, having played in 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018, 2022, 2026, and automatically qualified for 2034 as hosts. Their best performance was in 1994, where they reached the round of 16.

Overall record FIFA World Cup recordFIFA World Cup qualification recordYearRoundPosition* 1930Not a FIFA memberNot a FIFA member 1934 1938 1950 1954 1958Did not enterDid not enter 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978Did not qualify410337 198210415916 1986201101 19909432119 1994Round of 1612th42025611650287 1998Group stage28th30122714932267 2002Group stage32nd3003012141121478 2006Group stage28th301227121020242 2010Did not qualify168532515 20148332147 2018Group stage26th3102271812334514 2022Group stage25th3102351813413410 2026Group stage 38th 3 0 2 1 1 5188642213 2030To be determinedTo be determined 2034Qualified as hostsQualified as hostsTotal2244141549154893827288116

Historical performances Saudi Arabia made their World Cup debut in 1994, reaching the round of 16 on their first appearance. They advanced from the group with wins over Morocco and Belgium, the latter settled by a Saeed Al-Owairan solo goal that is often ranked among the greatest in World Cup history and earned him the nickname "Maradona of the Arabs". The run, which made them only the second Asian side to clear the group stage at a World Cup, ended with a 3–1 loss to Sweden.

The team failed to win a match across the 1998, 2002 and 2006 tournaments, a run that included a 0–8 defeat by Germany in 2002. At the 2018 World Cup they lost the opening game 5–0 to hosts Russia but closed their campaign with a stoppage-time Salem Al-Dawsari goal to beat Egypt 2–1.

At the 2022 World Cup Saudi Arabia beat eventual champions Argentina 2–1 in their opening match, with Al-Dawsari scoring the winner under coach Hervé Renard, in one of the competition's biggest upsets. It was the country's first win in an opening World Cup match, though they again exited at the group stage. Renard later guided the team to a third consecutive finals in 2026, and Saudi Arabia was confirmed as the sole-bidder host of the 2034 World Cup. List of matches World CupRoundOpponentScoreResultVenueSaudi Arabia scorers1994Group stage1–2LWashingtonAnwar2–1WEast RutherfordAl-Jaber, Anwar1–0WWashingtonAl-OwairanRound of 16 1–3LDallasAl-Ghesheyan1998Group stage0–1LLens0–4LSaint-Denis2–2DBordeauxAl-Jaber, Al-Thunayan2002Group stage0–8LSapporo0–1LSaitama0–3LYokohama2006Group stage2–2DMunichAl-Qahtani, Al-Jaber0–4LHamburg0–1LKaiserslautern2018Group stage0–5LMoscow0–1LRostov-on-Don2–1WVolgogradAl-Faraj, S. Al-Dawsari2022Group stage2–1WLusailAl-Shehri, S. Al-Dawsari0–2LAl Rayyan1–2LLusail S. Al-Dawsari2026Group stage1–1DMiami GardensAl-Amri0–4LAtlanta0–0DHouston

1994 FIFA World Cup

Group Stage

Knockout stage

Round of 16

1998 FIFA World Cup

Group Stage

2002 FIFA World Cup

semi final

2006 FIFA World Cup

Group Stage

2018 FIFA World Cup

Group Stage

2022 FIFA World Cup

Group Stage

2026 FIFA World Cup

Group Stage

Head-to-head record OpponentWin %Total

Player records Most appearances RankPlayerMatchesWorld Cups1Mohamed Al-Deayea101994, 1998 and 20022Sami Al-Jaber91994, 1998, 2002 and 2006Abdullah Zubromawi91994, 1998 and 2002Hussein Abdulghani91998, 2002 and 2006Salem Al-Dawsari92018, 2022 and 20266Mohammed Al-Owais72018, 2022 and 2026Mohamed Kanno72018, 2022 and 20268Mohammed Al-Khilaiwi61994 and 1998Khaled Al-Muwallid61994 and 1998Saeed Al-Owairan61994 and 1998Fuad Anwar61994 and 1998Hamzah Saleh61994 and 1998Ahmed Al-Dokhi61998, 2002 and 2006Ibrahim Suwayed61998 and 2002Nawaf Al-Temyat61998, 2002 and 2006Redha Tukar62002 and 2006Saud Abdulhamid62022 and 2026Abdulelah Al-Amri62022 and 2026Firas Al-Buraikan62022 and 2026

Goalscorers Sami Al-Jaber scored a joint-record three goals for Saudi Arabia at the FIFA World Cup; he also managed to score in World Cups twelve years apart (1994 and 2006).

Player Goals 1994 1998 2006 2018 2022 2026 Sami Al-Jaber 3111 Salem Al-Dawsari 3 12 Fuad Anwar Amin 22 Saeed Al-Owairan 11 Fahad Al-Ghesheyan 11 Yousuf Al-Thunayan 1 1 Yasser Al-Qahtani 1 1 Salman Al-Faraj 1 1 Saleh Al-Shehri 1 1 Abdulelah Al-Amri 1 1 Total 155 2 2 2 3 1

Squads

See also Asian nations at the FIFA World Cup Saudi Arabia at the AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia at the CONCACAF Gold Cup

References

Reports

External links Saudi Arabia at FIFA