Saudi Super Cup to set tone for epic RSL season

Feature 1h 42m Ago

This season’s title race in the Roshn Saudi League promises to be one of the best, and tightest, in recent memory, and it all kicks into action when the 2025-26 campaign gets under way on August 28.

However, don’t worry: we’ll get an early taste of just how competitive this campaign will be when the Saudi Super Cup takes place this week in Hong Kong.

Featuring four of the strongest teams from the RSL last season, the annual season curtain-raiser is being staged for the first time in East Asia, with locals snapping up tickets in quick time to catch a glimpse of the finest that Saudi Arabian football has to offer.

And there is no shortage of quality on display.

After storming their way to the 2024-25 RSL title, Al Ittihad will be banking on continuity heading into the new season, with very little alternations to their squad from last term to this. And you can understand the thinking. Why change a winning formula, right?

Captain Karim Benzema returns for a third season in black and yellow, headlining a squad that includes the likes of N’Golo Kante and Moussa Diaby, both of whom were crucial to Al Ittihad championship glory.

So, can Laurent Blanc motivate his side to go again against what looks likely to be an army of challengers to their title defence? That’s the question Al Ittihad must confront.

An old maxim in sport - and life - says that if you’re standing still, you’re going backwards and, as those around them have bolstered their squads, the title-holders will be out to prove that wrong.

Al Ittihad fans during Sea Derby v Al Ahli

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In the opening 2025 Super Cup semi-final fixture, which plays out on Tuesday, Al Ittihad will face Al Nassr, arguably the side that has undergone the most surgery this summer.

Despite the individual brilliance of Cristiano Ronaldo across the past two seasons - with 60 league goals and two golden boots - Al Nassr haven’t been able to get their hands on major silverware. Therefore, starting off by winning the first trophy on offer will represent a sizeable incentive.

It’ll be a completely different Al Nassr to that one that finished third in the RSL last season, with perhaps the biggest change coming in the form of the man giving the instructions from the sideline.

After Stefano Pioli parted ways in May, Al Nassr made their intentions clear by installing Jorge Jesus, the titanic tactician intrinsically connected to the other side of Riyadh.

The perennial winner made Al Hilal an almost unstoppable machine during his two years in blue, and that same relentless pursuit of perfection will now be driving him at Al Nassr.

Alongside Jesus, in terms of playing stock, the club have added Joao Felix, a player Jesus knows only too well from his time at Benfica, as well as former Barcelona defender Inigo Martinez and France international winger Kingsley Coman, from Bayern Munich.

When added to Ronaldo – the Portuguese superstar has committed another two years to Al Nassr - Sadio Mane and Marcelo Brozovic, it is an intimidating line-up – one that, for sure, will be intent on making an early season statement with a win against Al Ittihad in Hong Kong.

Joao Felix with new Al Nassr teammate Cristiano Ronaldo

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Looking at the other semi-final, played on Wednesday, it comprises two of this season’s most intriguing outfits.

Al Ahli were left to rue their slow start to the 2024-25 RSL, although they stormed home to finish the campaign as one of the competition's most in-form teams, coming fifth. And that was on the back of winning the AFC Champions League Elite.

If Matthias Jaissle’s men can avoid a similarly slow run out of the blocks, they will undoubtedly put themselves right in the top-flight title mix.

Having signed exciting French prospect Enzo Millot, who last season was described as the “best player in the Bundesliga”, they enter this season with the wind at their backs and full of confidence.

As do their opponents, Al Qadsiah. The Al Khobar outfit returned to the RSL last season for the first time since suffering relegation at the end of the 2020-21 campaign, and underwent a period of astonishing, and astute, transformation.

Not only was the playing squad revamped, so too was the club’s identity and future – a potent mix that lifted them to an excellent fourth-placed finish in the Saudi top flight.

Establishing themselves as a top-four side, Al Qadsiah are out to go even better this time around and have certainly made the signings to back that up.

The most exciting young prospect in Saudi football, Musab Al Juwayr, arrives after a breakout season on loan at Al Shabab in which he completed a clean sweep of the Young Player of the Month awards before taking the seasonal prize, too.

But potentially the most captivating signing is that of Mateo Retegui, last season’s golden boot winner in Italy’s Serie A.

With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang cutting short his time at Al Qadsiah, Michel and his coaching staff struck gold with the signing of the Italian international, aged only 26, following that standout showing for Atalanta.

With also welcoming back veteran Saudi international Yasser Al Shahrani to his boyhood club, it’s been an impressive off-season for the East Coast club. They have managed to keep the core of their squad together, and then sprinkle a little magic dust in the form of Retegui, Al Juwayr and Al Shahrani.

Trying to pick a Super Cup winner from the four competing clubs this week feels an impossible task. Which is why this promises to be such an exciting and tone-setting prelude to the much-awaited beginning of the new RSL season.