Saudi Euro Star: Abdulhamid arrives at FIFA World Cup with talent soaring

In the career of Saud Abdulhamid, the 2025-26 season will go down as a career-defining one. In the history of Saudi football, its significance could be even greater.

For the first time ever, Saudi Arabia had a player lift a major trophy in Europe, after Abdulhamid provided a lead role in RC Lens’ Coupe de France triumph. In the semi-final in particular, the flying full-back laid on a pair of assists as his team marched to a 4-1 victory against Toulouse.

In total, Abdulhamid scored one and recorded three assists across the competition, to go with his two goals and four assists in Ligue 1.

Certainly, his success is also Saudi Arabia’s success.

Not only does the national team benefit through the experience Abdulhamid has picked up plying his trade at a elite level and against top-tier opposition, such as the two-time UEFA Champions League winners, Paris Saint-Germain, who Lens finished runner-up to in the race for the French championship.

However, Saudi football benefits as a whole from the former Al Ittihad and Al Hilal defender’s trailblazing.

Young talents emerging through the development pathways will look to Abdulhamid and now, instead of simply dreaming of a potential career in one of football’s "Big Five" leagues, they recognise that it’s a realistic route.

With Abdulhamid's success thus far - and, hopefully, this is only the beginning - it will open the eyes of clubs elsewhere in France and across Europe to the possibility of bringing in other talents from the Kingdom.

Before long, there could be a pipeline of gifted footballers moving from the Roshn Saudi League to the established and most prominent leagues in the game.

Yet, what makes Abdulhamid’s boon with Lens this season all the more significant is that it would’ve be so easy to have never happened at all.

Having taken the plunge and moved to Europe, signing with Italian giants AS Roma in August 2024, the then-25-year-old endured a difficult first season in Serie A, featuring four times across the 38-game campaign.

It would’ve been so easy in that situation for Abdulhamid to return to the comfortable surroundings of home and chalk it up as a failed experiment; one worth trying, but not worth repeating.

That he didn’t speaks volumes of both his character and commitment.

To followers of the RSL, Abdulhamid’s talent was never in question; he just needed another opportunity to prove himself. Which he got, on loan, at Lens under fast-rising head coach Pierre Sage.

But, again, initially it didn’t come easy.

Abdulhamid was fighting for position with veteran French full-back Ruben Aguilar but, when the 33-year-old went down with injury, it opened a door that the two-time RSL title-winner, in typical style, barged through.

"You know, when he wasn’t getting much playing time, we fought to keep him," Sage said during the season. "Particularly during the winter break because we felt, despite everything, that even though he had little playing time, he needed time to adapt so that he could create the conditions to perform.

"And so the fact that he was playing more allowed him to find his feet, gain more confidence, take more initiative - and show off all the talent he has."

Abdulhamid finished the campaign having played 25 games - 14 as part of the starting XI - and with Lens activating their buy option immediately upon the completion of the season.

"Continuing with Saud was a no-brainer, given how successful the season we just had together was," Lens’ sporting director, Jean-Louis Leca, told French media earlier this month.

Sage then added: "Today, for me, [Saud] is completely adapted to European football, both in his approach to the profession, the way he manages his weeks, and the way he manages his matches.

"Indeed, he is a player who has already played much more than during his previous experience at Roma. So that bodes well for him and, given the information I gave you earlier about his development and his integration into European football, it's quite positive."

That info Sage referred to was Abdulhamid’s dedication to learning English to allow him to engage and converse with more of the Lens locker room.

"Personality-wise, he's a cheerful guy, quite energetic in everything he does during training," Sage said.

It’s true: Abdulhamid was not known within Saudi football simply for his tireless work ethic or ability to affect matches offensively as well as at the back, but for that almost-permanent wide smile.

Still, skillset developed in the Kingdom and honed to new heights this past season in France, Abdulhamid arrives at the 2026 FIFA World Cup a very different player compared to the one that featured in Qatar in 2022.

More experienced, more developed, more refined, more complete.

That bodes well for Saudi Arabia, not just for Tuesday morning’s Group H opener against Uruguay in Miami, but for the tournament and long into the future, too.