Sami Abdullah Al-Jaber ( ar, سامي الجابر; born 11 December 1972) is a Saudi Arabian football manager and former professional

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who is ...

who played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

. He spent the entirety of his career with Al-Hilal apart from a five-month loan to English club

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

. Al-Jaber is his country's second highest international goalscorer with 46 goals in 156 internationals from 1992 to 2006. He appeared in four consecutive

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 ...

tournaments, from 1994 to 2006, scoring in three of them. He was also a member of the Saudi squads which won the

AFC Asian Cup The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second oldest cont ...

in 1996. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Saudi footballers ever.

Club career

Al-Jaber made his Al-Hilal debut in 1989 and spent nearly 20 years at the club. In 2000, he joined

on loan, where he made just five appearances in five months. After the club learned that Al-Jaber's father had been taken seriously ill, he was allowed to join United Arab Emirates side Al-Ain on loan, and this was to spell the end of his time in England. Even so, to this day Al-Jaber remains one of very few Saudi footballers to play outside their homeland. On 21 January 2008, Al-Hilal held a

testimonial In promotion and advertising, a testimonial or show consists of a person's written or spoken statement extolling the virtue of a product. The term "testimonial" most commonly applies to the sales-pitches attributed to ordinary citizens, where ...

for Al-Jaber against English

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

giants

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. Al-Jaber scored a penalty en route to a 3–2 victory over the visitors, in his last game for the club.

International career

On 27 May 1998, Al-Jaber made his 100th international appearance in a friendly against Norway. At 25 years, four months and 16 days old, this made him the youngest male footballer to reach 100 caps. After gaining a runners-up medal in the

2000 Asian Cup The 2000 AFC Asian Cup was the 12th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in Lebanon between 12 and 29 October 2000. Japan ...

, he appeared in the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

but only played in one game, a 0–8 hammering by

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. He was ruled out of the rest of the competition when his appendix burst and he had to be rushed to hospital.

Managerial career

Al-Jaber was named as assistant coach of Al-Hilal in 2009, one year after he retired from professional football. He worked under notable coaches like Eric Gerets,

Gabriel Calderon In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብ� ...

and

Thomas Doll Thomas Jens Uwe Doll (born 9 April 1966) is a German professional football manager and a former football player who is the current Manager of Persija Jakarta. He played as an attacking midfielder for F.C. Hansa Rostock, BFC Dynamo, Hamburger SV, ...

. In 2012, he became assistant coach of

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

side AJ Auxerre. On 27 May 2013, Al-Jaber was named the manager of Al-Hilal, replaced former coach

Zlatko Dalić Zlatko Dalić (; born 26 October 1966) is a Croatian professional football manager and former player. He is the manager of the Croatia national team since 2017 and led them to a runners-up finish at the 2018 FIFA World Cup and third place at the ...

. He became the first Saudi coach to manage Al-Hilal after 14 years of

Khalil Ibrahim Al-Zayani Khalil Al-Zayani ( ar, خليل أبراهيم الزياني) is a Saudi Arabian football coach. Al-Zayani is part of Al-Zayani family residing in Dammam city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Playing career Al-Zayani played for the ...

in 1999. After his first season in his new career, he was ranked 19th in Football Coach World ranking. Even though, Al-Hilal decided to replace him. On 19 July 2014, Al Arabi announced his assignment as the technical manager of their football team.

Personal life

Al-Jaber is an advocate of football reforms, having criticised the Saudi Football Federation for its protectionist policy that prevented Saudi talents from going abroad to play better football after Saudi Arabia became the first team to be knocked out of

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Saudi Arabia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Al-Jaber goal.''

Honours

Al-Hilal * Saudi Premier League: 1989–90, 1995–96, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2004–05 * Crown Prince Cup:

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, 2004–05, 2005–06 * Saudi Federation Cup: 1990, 1993, 1996, 2000 *

Saudi Founder's Cup Saudi Founder's Cup (Arabic: كأس المؤسس الملك عبدالعزيز), is an official Centennial football tournament, held every hundred years. organized by the Saudi Arabia Football Federation The Saudi Arabian Football Federation ( ...

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 ...

Asian Cup Winners Cup The Asian Cup Winners' Cup was an association football competition run by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The competition was started in 1991 as a tournament for all the domestic cup winners from countries affiliated to the AFC. The winne ...

: 1996–97, 2001–02 * Asian Super Cup:

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

* Arab Champions League:

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

* Arab Super Cup:

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

* Gulf Club Champions Cup:

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

Saudi-Egyptian Super Cup The Saudi-Egyptian Super Cup was a competition organised by the Saudi and Egyptian football federations, between the league and cup champions from each federation. The cup winners from each federation participated in the President el-Sisi's Cup Winn ...

Saudi Arabia *

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

; runner-up:

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, ...

runner-up:

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

* Gulf Cup of Nations:

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Individual *Asian Player of the Month: February 1998 *Asian Goal of the Month: April 1998 * Saudi Premier League top scorer: 1989–90 (16), 1992–93 (19) * Arab Champions League top scorer:

(7), 2004–05 (9) *

1994 Arab Club Champions Cup The 1994 Arab Club Champions Cup was played in Saudi Arabia in the city of Riyadh. Al-Hilal won the championship for the first time beating in the final Al-Ittihad. Participants Preliminary round Zone 1 (Gulf Area) '' Al-Arabi & Al-Ittihad D ...

: Best Player * Gulf Club Champions Cup top scorer:

References

External links

sami al jaber injured

at AlHilal.com * * *

Official Website {{DEFAULTSORT:Jaber, Sami 1972 births Living people Sportspeople from Riyadh Saudi Arabian footballers Saudi Arabia international footballers Saudi Arabian expatriate footballers Al Hilal SFC players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Al-Gharafa SC players English Football League players 1992 King Fahd Cup players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1995 King Fahd Cup players 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players 1992 AFC Asian Cup players 1996 AFC Asian Cup players 2000 AFC Asian Cup players AFC Asian Cup-winning players FIFA Century Club Association football forwards Saudi Arabian football managers UAE Pro League managers Al Hilal SFC managers Al Wahda FC managers Al Shabab FC (Riyadh) managers Saudi Professional League players Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Qatar Saudi Arabian expatriate sportspeople in England Saudi Arabian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar