Fofana joins Ronaldo and company as Al-Nassr seek dominance – Arab News

https://arab.news/8kdvc
Cristiano Ronaldo is good at keeping Al-Nassr and Saudi Arabian football in the headlines.
“I opened the way to the Saudi league and now all the players are coming here,” he said earlier this week.
Whether he “opened the way” is debatable, but there is no doubt that following his arrival in January, the quality of imports has moved to the next level.
He must have been pleased on Tuesday when Al-Nassr announced the signing of Seko Fofana.
Ronaldo had said: “In one year, more and more top players will come to Saudi. In a year the Saudi league will overtake the Turkish league and Dutch league.”
The comments may have provoked huge debate but there is little doubt that any club in Amsterdam or Istanbul, or in fact in any league, would love to sign a player of Fofana’s quality.
The 28-year-old arrives in Riyadh following a spell as captain of RC Lens, the team that finished second in France last season, just a point behind champions Paris Saint-Germain.
The Ivory Coast international was last season an integral part of a team that qualified for the UEFA Champions League, making 35 appearances and scoring seven goals.
A year earlier his record was three more games played and an extra goal scored. It is impressive consistency. Overall, he played 112 times for the club and scored 21 goals.
Fofana has developed into a goalscoring midfielder; that much is clear from his stats.
This spells danger for Al-Nassr’s rivals. With the threat from Ronaldo as well as Anderson Talisca, who ended last season as the second-highest scorer in the league, there is some serious firepower at the club.
When you consider that Marcelo Brozovic has arrived from Inter Milan as one of the best defensive midfielders around, it gives those with attacking threat greater possibilities to go forward, safe in the knowledge that a world-class star is behind them.
Lens provided one of the stories of the European season with their second-place finish.
Fofana was a major part of that team and it was no secret that he was wanted by many big sides in England. Liverpool were reported to have been watching the player in the second half of the French season and there has also been interest from the likes of Newcastle and West Ham.
It is a measure of how much impact he had with the French club that he received an unusual goodbye from the side’s CEO.
Arnaud Pouille said: “As proof of his deep attachment to Racing, he will very shortly become the first player to leave the club to become a shareholder.
“Far from being a mere announcement, this concrete commitment is a strong act that anchors our relationship over time and underlines Seko’s confidence in the club’s future.”
That Fofana has occupied such a central role on and off the pitch with Lens bodes well for Al-Nassr.
He told Lens fans in a social media post: “I leave you with the feeling of accomplishment and pride at being a part of this history which is ours.”
Fofana is also swapping the UEFA Champions League for the Asian edition.
Lens would be seen as outsiders to progress past the group stage in Europe but Al-Nassr are expected to go far in the Asian tournament.
Unlike bitter Riyadh rivals Al-Hilal, who hold the record with four continental championships, Al-Nassr have never been crowned as Asia’s best team, a final appearance back in 1995 being the closest they have got to the honor.
Al-Nassr will be one to watch in Asia and with such recruitments as Fofana, Ronaldo’s predictions may not be too wide of the mark. Fofana looks to be a great signing for the club.
RIYADH: Al-Hilal sent a message to the rest of Saudi Arabia with the biggest-ever win in the Roshn Saudi League, a 9-0 thrashing of Al-Hazm that restored their four-point lead over Al-Nassr in second. They meet next Friday, and mouths are already starting to water.
It all means that Al-Hilal are still unbeaten in the league after 14 games and have won 12 and drawn just two. It was a devastating demonstration of firepower at the home of the bottom club with goals spread throughout six players with Malcom managing a hat-trick.
It was no surprise that the first fell to Aleksandar Mitrovic after 14 minutes, and it was a real striker’s goal. Mohammed Al-Breik swung in an inviting cross from deep, and it cleared the defense and looked to be heading into the arms of goalkeeper Aymen Dahmen, but Mitrovic stretched out a leg to volley home from close range. It was the start of what was going to be a very long afternoon for the hosts.
Mohamed Kanno added a second just after the half-hour. There seemed to be little danger when the midfielder picked up possession 30 meters from goal but he let fly with a shot that flew into the top corner to extend Al-Hilal’s lead. Mohammed Al-Qahtani made it three two minutes before the break, reacting quickly to fire home the rebound after Mitrovic’s low shot had been palmed away by the Tunisian goalkeeper who was having an increasingly busy evening.
It meant that the teams headed in at the break with few fans watching in any doubt as to where the points were heading — they were going back to Riyadh, but nobody could have predicted that there were still many more goals to come.
Malcom scored twice in three minutes early after the restart. Mitrovic was involved again, slipping the ball through the backline for the Brazilian winger to enter the area, skip past the ‘keeper with his first touch and then slide home. 
Then Michael got to the byline on the left and pulled the ball back for Malcom to score from close range and it was all getting very painful indeed for Al-Hazm. Almost immediately, however, they scored, but Mohamed Al-Thani’s precious strike was ruled out for offside and there was to be no respite. 
The visiting fans had to wait until the 79th minute for No. 6 and it came from Saleh Al-Shehri who returned to club action after scoring four goals in two World Cup qualifiers for Saudi Arabia, who defeated Pakistan and Jordan.
His goal was a simple tap-in after Michael had again reached the right byline this time and rolled the ball across the goal for the in-form Al-Shehri. Two minutes later, Al-Breik made a rare appearance on the scoresheet. The full-back entered the area and his low shot, if it was a shot and not an attempt at a low ball across the area, hit Dahmen and rolled in.
Malcom got his hat-trick with five minutes remaining, pouncing on a loose ball near the penalty spot and firing home a low drive. Then came No. 9 from Sergej Milinkovic-Savic inside injury time.
History was made but more importantly, Al-Hilal are once again clear at the top. It is looking increasingly like only Al-Nassr can stop them. The Riyadh Derby next week is going to be something special.
LONDON: Mikel Arteta saluted “adorable” Kai Havertz after the German sent Arsenal to the top of the Premier League with the last-gasp goal that clinched a 1-0 win at Brentford on Saturday.
Havertz was a Champions League final hero for Chelsea in 2021, but he has endured a torrid time since crossing London to join Arsenal in the close-season.
The 24-year-old midfielder finally gave a glimpse of why Arteta splashed out £65 million ($80 million) to sign him when he headed home in the closing minutes.
Havertz’s second goal for Arsenal was his first in his last 10 appearances, moving his team one point clear of second placed Manchester City, who were held to a 1-1 draw by third placed Liverpool earlier in the day.
“That is the beautiful thing about life. When you have challenges and you have to overcome them, it makes these moments much better,” Arteta said.
“That is the reason the people reacted to him like that today. It is because he is adorable and he is a joy to work with. He fully deserves more than anybody to get that win.”
Arsenal’s third successive win in all competitions proved they have erased the bitter taste of their controversial VAR-aided defeat at Newcastle earlier in November.
Arteta’s men had already won at the Gtech Community Stadium in the League Cup in September and they left it late before making it another successful trip to west London.
“I love winning and we are top of the table. This is where we have to want to be,” Arteta said.
“When you have an opportunity to take a bite out of everybody you have to do it.
“I was really curious how the team was going to do. Winter has started, it was very cold and it is difficult coming to Brentford. I loved the way the team competed.”
With on-loan Arsenal keeper David Raya not eligible to play against his parent club, Aaron Ramsdale made his first league start since September 3.
Ramsdale’s father recently criticized Arteta’s handling of the Arsenal goalkeeping controversy, with the England international surprisingly losing his place to Raya despite recording the second most Premier League clean-sheets last season.
But Arteta’s faith in Raya received a boost when Ramsdale, his confidence clearly affected by his spell on the bench, almost gifted Brentford the lead with a horrendous mistake early in the first half.
Trying to play out from the six-yard box after Gabriel’s back-pass, Ramsdale panicked under pressure from Yoane Wissa.
Ramsdale missed his kick and the ball rolled to Bryan Mbeumo, whose shot was cleared off the line by Declan Rice before Wissa stabbed the rebound wide.
Arteta refused to be drawn on Ramsdale’s shaky performance, saying only: “I am really happy with the team and the way the team played and we kept the clean sheet.”
After a slow start from Arsenal, they finally showed signs of life when Trossard headed Oleksandr Zinchenko’s cross over before Gabriel nodded into the side-netting.
Arsenal thought they had taken the lead in the 42nd minute when Gabriel Jesus met Bukayo Saka’s cross with a header that was parried by Mark Flekken and Leandro Trossard nodded home from close-range.
But a VAR check decided Trossard was narrowly offside, giving Arteta another dose of frustration at the hands of the review system.
Brentford nearly made Arsenal pay for their lethargy as Neal Maupay’s header was brilliantly cleared off the line by the stretching Zinchenko before the French forward poked the rebound wastefully wide.
That proved a crucial moment as Havertz came off the bench to win it in the 89th minute.
Saka’s cross picked out Havertz’s run to the far post and the German guided his header past Flekken as Arteta jumped for joy on the touchline.
BERLIN: When Kevin Volland scored a late equalizer for Union Berlin, assistant coach Marie-Louise Eta pushed the team for more.
Eta had already made history on Saturday by becoming the first female assistant coach in the 60-year history of the Bundesliga, as well as in the other top divisions of Europe’s “big five” soccer leagues.
With Union bidding to end a nine-game run of German league defeats, Volland scored two minutes before the end of regulation time against Augsburg to set off celebrations of joy and relief around Union’s Stadion An der Alten Försterei. It was Union’s first goal in five games and the match ended 1-1.
Eta didn’t celebrate the goal for long, but instead encouraged her players to go for the win. There were still five minutes of injury time to play.
Kevin Behrens was blocked, Josip Juranović went close, and in the end, Union had to be content with a point as they climbed off the bottom of the standings.
“An important step in the right direction,” interim coach Marco Grote said.
Grote and Eta were appointed by Union during the international break to replace the popular Urs Fischer and assistant Markus Hoffmann. Union enjoyed unprecedented success with Fischer at the helm, but nine consecutive defeats in the Bundesliga this season forced a painful departure.
Union’s Germany international Robin Gosens said the new coaching team hadn’t changed too much.
“They didn’t want to destroy our work, or Urs Fischer’s work over the last five years,” Gosens said. “On the contrary, they said from the start that Union is what Urs Fischer has built up over the last five years, namely the mentality, giving everything we have for each other on the field. I think we showed that today.”
But Grote and Eta also brought their own ideas, Gosens said.
“What was new were two or three approaches, and two or three new ideas about how we play the spaces and get behind the defense. I think it worked quite well. We found room and good solutions,” Gosens said. “And I think the combination led to a really good game from us today.”
JEDDAH: The draw for the Next Gen ATP finals, starting in Saudi Arabia next week, was held on Saturday night.
The season-ending tournament, presented by NEOM, will be staged at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah from Nov. 28 with the final taking place on Saturday, Dec. 2.
The draw was divided into two groups. The Red group will have Luca Van Assche, Alex Michelensen, Hamad Madjedovic and Abdullah Shelbaya. While the Green group consists of Arthur Fils, Dominic Stricker, Flavio Cobolli and Luca Nardi.

The tournament is organized by the Ministry of Sports and the Saudi Tennis Federation, who signed a partnership with ATP for a period of five years until 2027.
The top eight players aged 21 or under in the 2023 ATP Tour qualified for the event, although there have been withdrawals as world No 2 Carlos Alcaraz and world No 8 Holger Rune (both 20) will not feature as they competed at the ATP Finals.
The tournament prize pot will be a record $2 million, with the champion at this year’s event set to earn $514,000.
Three matches at this year’s Next Gen ATP Finals will be worth more than $100,000. Each semi-final victory will be worth $113,500 and the championship match will yield the winner $153,000. The participation fee for each player at the event is $150,000.
JEDDAH: Jordan’s 20-year-old international tennis player Abdullah Shelbayh has urged Arab spectators to come and cheer him on as he competes in Jeddah’s Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM next week.
Having just turned 20 on Nov. 16, Shelbayh will be one of eight players to compete in the under-21 event at the Next Gen ATP Finals from Nov. 28-Dec. 2, a media statement said on Saturday.
Competing against the elite from his worldwide peer group in Saudi Arabia will be “a special moment” for Shelbayh, who alongside stars of the future Arthur Fils, Dominic Stricker, Luca Van Assche, Flavio Cobolli, Alex Michelsen, Hamad Medjedovi and Luca Nardi, will battle it out for global glory and a $514,000 top prize.
Arab support will “mean the world” to Shelbayh, who is urging as many spectators as possible to attend this year’s event at King Abdullah Sports City.
“In the tournament, I think I’ll need the support from the Arab world during the week,” says the 20-year-old, who reached the Wimbledon Junior doubles final in 2021.
“I’ll be depending on them, honestly. It’ll be very special for me to see Arab fans watch me play there.”
“In most countries in the Arab world, tennis is not as developed a sport,” said Shelbayh.
“But for me as a Jordanian, as an Arab as well, to be playing in such a special event is an honor. It’s a great way for me to show to the world — the Arab world and the whole world — that we can have talent and special players from our region.”
Born in Amman, Shelbayh is ranked 187th in the world by ATP, making him by far the region’s highest ranked male — as well as the first Jordanian tennis player to achieve an ATP world ranking.
The success of Tunisian star Ons Jabeur — the former world No.2 and three-time Grand Slam finalist who is the highest ranked Arab tennis player in both WTA and ATP rankings history — has sparked interest in tennis in the region.
Shelbayh, who describes Jabeur as having done “wonders” for tennis in the Arab world, hopes he can prove just as, or even more, inspirational as he embarks on his professional career.
“I hope I will be inspiring many young kids from the Arab world to play this sport,” said the Jordanian, who, after moving from his homeland aged 14, trained at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Spain. He then spent a year playing at the University of Florida before turning professional.
Established in 2017, previous tournaments took place in Milan before an agreement was sealed for Jeddah to host the Next Gen ATP Finals from at least 2023 to 2027.

source