Abdullah Al-Garni ( Arabic: عبد الله القرني; born 18 February 1987) is a Saudi Arabian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

. He currently plays as a defender for

Al-Nassr Al Nassr Football Club ( ar, نادي النصر السعودي; '' Naṣr'' meaning ''Victory'') is a Saudi Arabian football club based in Riyadh. Formed in 1955, the club plays its home games at the Mrsool Park. Their home colours are yello ...

in the Saudi Professional League.

Early club career

Al-Garni joined his birthplace football club Al-Zaytoon FC in Sabt Alalaya town. He first played as a defensive midfielder. At this time his team was competing the Saudi Arabian 3rd division league. After a while he decided to leave his hometown to complete his education in Aramco Institute. He was playing

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

non-professionally with colleagues in Aramco football team.

Abha 2008/2009

After Abha's promotion to the Saudi Professional League, Al-Garni went back to get closer to his hometown and signed a one-year contract with Abha. That is when he first played as a central defender under a supervision of the technical manager Mahdi Al-Ragdi. He made his debut with Abha against

Al-Ittihad Al-Ittihad (Arabic: الاتحاد "The Union"), sometimes transliterated as Al-Etihad or Al-Ettihad may refer to: Sports Football Libya *Al-Ittihad Club (Tripoli), a football club based in Bab Ben Gashier * Al Ittihad Gheryan, a football club bas ...

in the sixth round of the

Saudi Professional League 2008–09 Saudi may refer to: * Saudi Arabia * Saudis, people from Saudi Arabia * Saudi culture The cultural setting of Saudi Arabia is greatly influenced by the Arab and Islamic culture. The society is in general deeply religious, conservative, tradit ...

. Since then, Al-Garni continued in Abha's line-up squad until ending the season with relegation to the Saudi First Division League.

Al-Nassr 2009/2010

As the previous technical manager,

Edgardo Bauza Edgardo Bauza (born 26 January 1958) is an Argentine football manager and former player who played as a defender. Before taking up management, he played over 300 games for Rosario Central. He also played for Independiente in Argentina, Atlé ...

, was looking for young defenders. He scouted Al-Garni and requested the youngster's service from Abha.

management signed, after a dramatic transfer, a five-year contract with Al-Garni, together with his Abha teammate Khaled Al-Zylaeei, starting from 15 July 2009 Al-Garni participated in a preparatory training camp in Barcelona, Spain, with the new Uruguayan manager,

Jorge da Silva Jorge Orosmán da Silva Echeverrito (born 11 December 1961) is a Uruguayan former Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker. Nicknamed "Polilla" ("Moth" in English), he played professional ...

. However, Al-Garni was deemed not yet mature enough to assume the reserve position for his team. He played a couple of matches with Al-Nassr U-23 team, which is considered to be team B in some countries, where he scored the first goal with Al-Nassr against Al Shabab. In the ninth round of the Saudi Professional League, Al-Nassr played the worst 45 minutes against Al-Ahli from

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's pro ...

when they received three goals ending the first half 3-0 for Al-Ahli. Al-Garni joined as a substitute at the beginning of the second half and Al-Nassr succeed to get to end up the tough match with a big draw 3-3. Since then, he kept his position in the team until the end of the season.

International career

Al-Garni called up for the

Saudi Arabia national team Saudi may refer to: * Saudi Arabia * Saudis, people from Saudi Arabia * Saudi culture, the culture of Saudi Arabia * House of Saud The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is c ...

for the first time at the end of the season 2009–10 He suffered a knee injury during the training camp which was in Austria.The Green Falcons continue preparations for Nigeria (Arabic)
He could not make his debut for the national team yet.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garni, Abdullah Living people Saudi Arabian men's footballers 1987 births Al-Zaytoon Club players Abha Club players Al Nassr FC players Al Qadsiah FC players Al Fateh SC players Al-Khaleej FC players Saudi Fourth Division players Saudi First Division League players Saudi Pro League players Men's association football defenders