Salem Mohammed Shafi Al-Dawsari ( ar, سالم محمد شافي الدوسري; born 19 August 1991) 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 winger for

Saudi Professional 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 Hilal 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 ...

Club career

Al-Dawsari joined Al Hilal as a youth player. In 2018, as part of a deal between the

Saudi Arabian Football Federation The Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF, ar, الاتحاد العربي السعودي لكرة القدم) is the football governing body of Saudi Arabia. Founded in 1956, its responsibilities include administration of club competitions an ...

and

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

, he joined Spanish club

Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...

on loan. He made one appearance in Spain, coming on as a substitute against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

as Villareal came from behind to draw 2–2. In the second leg of the 2019 AFC Champions League Final on 24 November, Al-Dawsari scored the opening goal in an eventual 2–0 away win over

Urawa Red Diamonds , colloquially Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, is a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan. The club plays in the J ...

, which saw Al-Hilal win the title following a 3–0 aggregate victory; the title allowed them to qualify for the

2019 FIFA Club World Cup The 2019 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2019 presented by Alibaba Cloud for sponsorship reasons) was the 16th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament betw ...

. On 7 February 2023, Al-Dawsari scored two penalties in a 3–2 win over

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; English: ''Flamengo Rowing Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football t ...

in the

2022 FIFA Club World Cup The 2022 FIFA Club World Cup will be the 19th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament between the winners of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation's league champions. ...

semi-final, in which his club reached the final for the first time in their history.

International career

Al-Dawsari was called up to the

for the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, and scored his first international goal in an away match against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 2012. In May 2018, he was named in Saudi Arabia's preliminary

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

in Russia. On 25 June, Al-Dawsari scored a late winning goal as his side won 2–1 over

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

in their last group stage match of the World Cup. On 22 November 2022, Al-Dawsari scored his second goal at a

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

, his first at the 2022 edition in Qatar, in a match against

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 ...

. He made a run around the box before finishing past

Emiliano Martínez Damián Emiliano Martínez (born 2 September 1992) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest leve ...

to put Saudi Arabia ahead by a score of 2–1, which ended in a historic shock victory for the

. On 30 November, he scored a goal against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, in which he equaled the record of most goals scored by a Saudi player in World Cups, three goals by

Sami Al-Jaber Sami Abdullah Al-Jaber ( ar, سامي الجابر; born 11 December 1972) is a Saudi Arabian football manager and former professional player who played as a striker. He spent the entirety of his career with Al-Hilal apart from a five-month ...

, as Saudi Arabia exited the World Cup with a 2–1 loss to Mexico.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Statistics accurate as of match played 28 March 2023.'' :''Scores and results list Saudi Arabia's goal tally first (one unofficial goal included).''

Honours

Al-Hilal *

: 2016–17, 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, 2021–22 *

King's Cup __NOTOC__ King's Cup (incl. translations), may refer to: Sports Football * Copa del Rey, Spanish for "King's Cup," the main national knockout tournament in men's football * King Cup (sometimes named King's Cup), Saudi Arabian men's football nati ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, 2019–20 * Crown Prince Cup: 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 2015–16 *

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� ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Individual *

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

AFC Man Team of the Year: 2020 * IFFHS AFC Men's Team of the Decade 2011–2020 * AFC Champions League MVP:

References

External links

*
Goal.com
profile
Eurosport
profile {{DEFAULTSORT:Dawsari, Salem 1991 births Living people Sportspeople from Riyadh Saudi Arabian footballers Association football wingers Saudi Professional League players La Liga players Al Hilal SFC players Villarreal CF players 2015 AFC Asian Cup players 2019 AFC Asian Cup players Saudi Arabia youth international footballers Saudi Arabia international footballers Saudi Arabian expatriate footballers Saudi Arabian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Spain 2018 FIFA World Cup players Olympic footballers of Saudi Arabia Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics 2022 FIFA World Cup players