Mohammed Al-Qahtani

With a lifetime spent at Al-Hilal SFC, Mohammed Al-Qahtani has been showing some fine form under Jorge Jesus this season – he has two goals and two assists in around 600 minutes. Born in July 2002, the young left-winger can play as a winger on either side of the pitch, as an attacking midfielder, or as a right-back. He has so far been capped three times by the Saudi Arabian national team.

With a low centre of gravity – he’s 1.67 metres tall – Mohammed has tremendous agility, which makes him very useful in individual offensive duels. Due to the high frequency of his stride when accelerating, the winger is a player with good travelling speed. Moreover, his running speed is exciting for his positions on the pitch.

Al-Qahtani is a technically developed player. This ability gives him credit for individual creation and problem-solving in one-on-one situations. Often open on the wing, Mohammed looks to direct his actions through diagonal drives from outside to inside – the fact that he is comfortable playing inside gives him variability in terms of the areas of the pitch he can occupy. This means that he appears more often in finishing areas, or can serve his team-mates for shots on goal – he can execute final passes with great precision and creativity. His dribbling is fine and is the result of the Saudi player’s mastery of body feints and ball flicks. In addition, his finishing is refined: he’s a player who hits the ball well, both in terms of power and precision.

His behaviour on the pitch is equally praiseworthy: he plays with joy and a predisposition for every moment of the game – in defensive moments, he does what is asked of him, both in moments of high pressure and in moments of defensive transition. He tries to have fun on the ball and shows astuteness and wit when he can take on the opposition in one-on-one offensive duels. Even if sometimes he doesn’t succeed in dribbling, he doesn’t give up trying and pushing his conviction forward. His hunger for the pleasure of playing football makes him an interesting player to work with at other levels.

Despite being covered by Malcom, which prevents him from having continuity in terms of the number of minutes he plays from the start, Mohammed Al-Qahtani has already shown that he has the potential to make it on the Old Continent – thus following in the footsteps of former AS Roma team-mate Saud Abdulhamid. It will be difficult to see Jorge Jesus doing without Malcom, so the Saudi Arabian international must get as many minutes as possible. A loan to another team in the Saudi Pro League could be interesting so that, if he reaches an exemplary level of performance, he can be an option for teams in countries like Belgium or the Netherlands.