Rockin' Reijnders: The Al Qadsiah and Netherlands star taking RSL by storm
Whatever Al Qadsiah committed to sign Tijjani Reijnders from Manchester City in the off-season, it looks a bargain.
After challenging for the Roshn Saudi League title until late last season, there was little change in Al Khobar during the summer, with the arrival of Reijnders the only significant foreign addition to Brendan Rodgers’ side.
“For us, we're here to disrupt the top teams, and hopefully we can do that,” the former Celtic and Liverpool manager told the Saudi Pro League before the 2026-27 campaign had gotten under way.
Twelve rounds into the season, consider the disruption caused. Al Qadsiah are right in the title hunt, sitting second in the table, only two points off the summit.
And the form of Reijnders is a significant reason as to why.
After his hat-trick against Al Riyadh last time out, the Netherlands international has taken his tally to eight goals and three assists; his eleven goal contributions in the 2026-27 RSL are behind only the on-song Ivan Toney, who has 12 goals and two assists.
Reijnders isn’t just a disruptor; he’s a difference maker, too.
His arrival has added a fresh dimension to Al Qadsiah’s attacking play, not that it needed significant improvement from last season.
The East Coast club had one of the division’s most potent attacking line-ups already, with 2025-26 RSL golden boot Julian Quinones and Mateo Retegui up front, and reigning SPL Saudi Player of the Season Musab Al Juwayr pulling the strings behind them.
Importantly, Reijnders’ recruitment complemented what Al Qadsiah already had. Al Juwayr remains just as important this season, evidenced by the fact he leads the league for line-breaking passes into the opposition area (27).
Impressively, all 27 have resulted in a shot, and seven have laid on a goal - both of which are top flight’s best numbers.
The addition of Reijnders, then, has simply made an already threatening offence even more so, especially when you consider his own impressive statistics since landing in the Kingdom.
The Dutchman, who featured at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the summer, leads the RSL for the greatest percentage of shots on target, with 20 of his 32 attempts (62.5 percent) hitting the mark.
That's slightly ahead of Toney’s 22 from 36 attempts (61.1%). The Al Ahli man, remember, tops this term’s RSL's scoring charts.
With eight league goals, Reijnders is scoring from every fourth attempt he takes at goal, and with 32 in 10 games, it means he is close to averaging a goal every game.
Those 20 on-target efforts also account for almost a quarter of Al Qadsiah’s league-leading 83 attempts on target, while Al Qadsiah have scored four goals from outside the box this season - all credited to Reijnders.
In addition, his 22 chances created show that, as much as he can finish chances, the former AC Milan and Man City midfielder is also conjuring them, making him a double danger for opposition defences.
It is, also, exactly why he was brought in in the first place.
“Tijjani brings outstanding technical quality, intelligence and dynamism to our midfield,” club technical director, Carlos Anton, said of his signing.
“His ability to progress the ball, connect the game and influence different phases, combined with his versatility and experience at the highest level, makes him an exceptional addition to our team.”
It aligns, as well, with Al Qadsiah’s aspirations in Asia, something Reijnders spoke of as contributing to him deciding to join the club’s purposeful project.
“[It was] especially the ambition of the club," Reijnders said in July. "The club wants to be the biggest in Asia and what they did already in the past and what we can do now in the future, it triggered me a lot.
"And, yeah, I want to help the club to bring it to the highest level."
Because that's the other element for Al Qadsiah this season: it’s not just the domestic front on which they are competing, they are also competing in the AFC Champions League Elite for the first time.
Of course, that adds extra workload and travel for the players, but it is something Reijnders is used to from his time at the elite level in Europe and in the international game (on Friday, he bagged another hat-trick, this time in the Netherlands' victory against Greece).
At the halfway mark of the continental club’s League Stage, Al Qadsiah are undefeated, with two wins and two draws, setting themselves up nicely for an assault on Asian silverware alongside their domestic aspirations.
For Al Qadsiah’s overall objective, the signing of Reijnders was a statement of ambition. And, only three months in, he’s already proving invaluable.