RSL Legends: Al Sahlawi, Al Nassr's goal guarantor who delighted in derbies

Yahoo

26-01-2025

The 2024-25 Roshn Saudi League may have its multitude of shining lights but, rewind the clock a decade, and right towards the top sat Mohammed Al Sahlawi.
Scoring goals for fun, breaking transfer records and setting the league alight, Al Sahlawi was the man - or at the very least one of them. The Saudi Arabian was part of a fine generation of compatriot strikers alongside the likes of Yasser Al Qahtani and Nasser Al Shamrani; some might say the best generation and collection of forward talent the country has ever seen.
Al Sahlawi's name and record sits right up there with the best of them. His is a three-time league champion, two-time player of the year and fourth on the all-time goal scorers list, with 105 goals. In the SPL era, meanwhile, he perches proudly as the all-time leading goalscorer for Al Nassr having scored 103 times in 205 league appearances across 10 seasons in Riyadh.
Perhaps the only accolade missing, as an individual honour at least, is a golden boot; Al Sahlawi twice lost out to Al Shamrani, and once to the RSL's record goalscorer, Omar Al Somah, who in the 2014-15 season, bagged 22 to Al Sahlawi's 21.
While there may have been some disappointment at going without those personal prizes, they do not diminish Al Sahlawi's brilliant career, nor his legacy for the yellow half of Riyadh.
Al Sahlawi was the main man for Al Nassr as they dominated Saudi football for a period in the early 2010s, winning back-to-back RSL titles in 2013-14 and 2014-15. He netted 38 times across those two seasons, justifying the reported record-setting transfer fee Al Nassr paid in 2009 to sign him from Al Qadsiah.
It was at the Al Khobar-based club that the frontman's talent first started to emerge. Fifteen goals in the Saudi First Division League as a 21-year-old alerted everyone to Al Sahlawi's potential, but it was Al Nassr that managed to snare his signature.
It began a decade-long association with the capital club, during which time Al Sahlawi entrenched himself as an Al Nassr legend, and one that is still revered by fans to this day.
He set the tone in his debut season in Riyadh, scoring 11 goals and narrowly missing out on the golden boot – to Al Hilal's Mohammed Al Shalhoub, who notched 12. And while Al Nassr fell short in the title race – they finished third, 13 points behind champions Al Hilal - a new star had been born.
In the end of season awards, he came third in the Player of the Season offering, while he was named the league's best attacker.
While second-year blues struck in 2010-11, with Al Nassr toiling under both Walter Zenga and Dragan Skocic, ultimately finishing in fifth, Al Sahlawi was back to his best in 2011-12 with 15 goals. Despite that contribution, Al Nassr struggled and slipped even further, finishing a lowly seventh.
Yet, in the following season, Al Sahlawi again reached double figures for goals (10) as Al Nassr rallied to record a fourth-placed finish. Then, as the player entered his peak years, so too did the club.
Under Uruguayan Jose Daniel Carreno, now coach at Al Wehda, everything clicked. Al Nassr lost once in the league during the 2013-14 campaign. Al Sahlawi represented the sharp edge to that superb side; he scored, at that time, a career best 17 goals to propel Al Nassr to their first league crown since 1995, ending the longest title drought in the club's history.
To cap it off, Al Sahlawi was deservedly voted the league's best player, capping an unbelievable season.
Not content with one title, though, Al Nassr set about winning back-to-back championships, something the club has a history of: four of their five previous league successes has come as part of successful title defences.
Lightning, as it turns out, can strike thrice, with Al Nassr retaining the top-flight trophy in 2014-15. This time, Al Sahlawi lifted his game to an even greater level.
In finding the net 21 times, his tally was almost one-third of all of Al Nassr's goals that season. Of course, his outlay saw him again voted the Player of the Season. However, there was one goal that stood out above the rest: his winner against fierce rivals Al Hilal in the second-last match of the campaign that sealed the title.
'I have beautiful memories of the derby,' Al Sahlawi, who has also plied his trade in Saudi for Al Shabab, Al Taawoun, Al Hazem and Al Safa, said last year. 'The most memorable may have been the penultimate game [in 2014-15], which was challenging and entertaining. Thank God we won that game and clinched the title.'
It was perhaps fitting that the title-winning goal came from Al Sahlawi and against Al Hilal, because there was nothing he loved more than a goal in the Capital Derby. To this day, he holds the record as Al Nassr's leading scorer in the cross-city clash, with 11.
Now the man trying to chase down his records is Cristiano Ronaldo - a man Al Sahlawi describes as '...the best attacker in the history of football' - who has become as synonymous with Al Nassr in recent years as Al Sahlawi was in the previous decade.
It was a different time in Saudi football, but for Al Nassr fans it's one they remember fondly and will forever hold a special place in their hearts. Just like the man crucial in delivering it.