Nawaf bin Dhahi bin Faisal Al-Suwaiti Al-Aqidi ( ar, نواف بن ضاحي بن فيصل الشويطي العقيدي; born 10 May 2000) is a Saudi Arabian professional

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 ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for

Saudi Pro League The Saudi Pro League (SPL for short) ( ar, دوري المحترفين السعودي, link=no, ''Dawriyy al-Muḥtarifayni as-Suʿūdī''), known as the Roshn Saudi League (RSL for short) for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of associat ...

club

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 yellow ...

and 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 ...

Career

Club

Nawaf began his career for the youth team of

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 ...

. On 30 June 2019, he was chosen in the Saudi program to develop football talents established by

General Sports Authority The Ministry of Sport (MoS; ), formerly the General Sports Authority (GSA; ), is a government ministry responsible for sports in Saudi Arabia. The Ministry of Sport was previously known as the General Sports Authority and before that as the General ...

. He signed his first professional contract with Al-Nassr on 8 August 2019. He returned from the program due to family circumstances and was promoted to Al-Nassr's first-team on 31 December 2019. On 11 January 2020, he was named on the bench for the first team the league match 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 ...

. On 30 September 2021, Al-Aqidi made his debut for Al-Nassr in the league match against

Abha Abha ( ar, أَبْهَا, ') is the capital of 'Asir Region in Saudi Arabia, with a population of 1,093,705 as of 2021. It is situated above sea level in the fertile Asir Mountains of south-western Saudi Arabia, near Asir National Park. Abha' ...

. On 30 January 2022, Al-Aqidi joined Al-Tai on loan. He made his debut on 12 February 2022, in the 3–1 win against Al-Batin. He made 7 appearances and kept 3 clean sheets for Al-Tai before returning to Al-Nassr at the end of the season.

International

Saudi Arabia U23

He played for the Saudi Arabia U20 national team but was not part of the

2020 AFC U-19 Championship qualification The 2020 AFC U-19 Championship qualification was an international men's under-19 football competition which was originally held to decide the participating teams of the 2020 AFC U-19 Championship. The AFC announced the cancellation of the final t ...

, in which Saudi Arabia qualified with two wins and one draw. However, with the

2020 AFC U-19 Championship The 2020 AFC U-19 Championship would have been the 41st edition of the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-19 national teams of Asia. It was scheduled to take p ...

cancelled due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, he was able to redeem himself in the

2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup The 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup was the 5th edition of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup (prior to 2021 known as the AFC U-23 Championship), a biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the ...

with a spectacular performance, guiding the team to conquer the first title without conceding a single goal and a near perfect record with only

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

managed to hold Saudi Arabia a draw. He was also summoned for the

Islamic Solidarity Games The Islamic Solidarity Games ( ar, ألعاب التضامن الإسلامي) is a multinational, multi-sport event. The Games involve the elite athletes of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation who compete in a variety of sports. The Solidari ...

Konya Konya () is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium (), although the Seljuks also called it D ...

, Turkey, which was delayed to 2022 due to the same reason. Al-Aqidi once again impressed in the tournament without conceding a single goal in the group stage until the semi-finals, when he finally conceded a goal after eight consecutive clean sheets, in Saudi Arabia's 2–1 win over

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

, albeit it was from a penalty rather than an open play. In the final, Al-Aqidi finally conceded the first ever open play goal after nine games, which was against the hosts

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

in a pressuring attempt that saw Metehan Altunbaş netted, yet that goal proved disastrous as Saudi Arabia proved unable to break the Turkish defence as Saudi Arabia's hope to win the second major tournament in the same year crashed by this 0–1 loss.

Senior

On 18 November 2021, Al-Aqidi called up to the senior side for the first time to take part in the

2021 FIFA Arab Cup The 2021 FIFA Arab Cup () was the 10th edition of the Arab Cup, the Arab world's national team football tournament; it was the first edition under FIFA's jurisdiction. It took place between 30 November and 18 December in Qatar, as a p ...

. He made no appearances in the competition, as Saudi Arabia exited at the group stage. On 11 November 2022, Al-Aqidi was named in the squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

. He didn't play a single game in the tournament as third choice keeper to

Mohammed Al-Owais Mohammed Khalil Ibrahim Al-Owais ( ar, محمد خليل إبراهيم العويس; born 10 October 1991) is a Saudi Arabian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Al-Hilal and the Saudi Arabia national team. He is known for h ...

and Mohammed Al-Rubaie, as Saudi Arabia again crashed out of the group stage despite historic win over

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in the opener. On 30 December 2022, Al-Aqidi was named in the squad for the

25th Arabian Gulf Cup The 25th Arabian Gulf Cup, known as Khaleeji Zain 25 for sponsorship reasons, was the 25th edition of the Arabian Gulf Cup, biennial football competition for the eight members of the Arab Gulf Cup Football Federation. The tournament was hosted in ...

. He started in all three matches, as Saudi Arabia again failed to progress from the group stage.

Honours

Al-Nassr *

Saudi Super Cup The Saudi Super Cup ( ar, كأس السوبر السعودي) is an annual super cup football match organised by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation. Founded in 2013 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2022� ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

Arab Club Champions Cup The Arab Club Champions Cup ( ar, كأس العرب للأندية الأبطال, french: Ligue des Champions Arabe) is an annual regional club football competition organised by the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) and contested by eli ...

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

Saudi Arabia U23 *

AFC U-23 Asian Cup The AFC U-23 Asian Cup, previously the AFC U-22 Championship (in 2013) and AFC U-23 Championship (between 2016 and 2020), is a biennial international football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 n ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Individual * Saudi Professional League Young Player of the Month: May & June 2022 * Saudi Professional League Goalkeeper of the Month: April 2023 *

Best Goalkeeper:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aqidi, Nawaf 2000 births Living people Footballers from Riyadh Men's association football goalkeepers Saudi Arabian men's footballers Saudi Arabia men's youth international footballers Saudi Arabia men's international footballers Al Nassr FC players Al-Tai FC players Saudi Pro League players 2022 FIFA World Cup players 2023 AFC Asian Cup players