
This is arecord ofSaudi Arabia's results at theFIFA World Cup. TheFIFA World Cup, sometimes called theFootball World Cup or theSoccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as theWorld Cup, is an internationalassociation football competition contested by themen's national teams of the members ofFédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due toWorld War II.
The tournament consists of two parts, thequalification phase and the final phase (officially called theWorld Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 48 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup final is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the2006 tournament final.[1]
Saudi Arabia has qualified for a total of eightFIFA World Cup tournaments, having played in1994,1998,2002,2006,2018,2022,2026, and2034 as hosts. Their best performance was in 1994, where they reached the round of 16.
| FIFA World Cup record | FIFA World Cup qualification record | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | Pld | W | D* | L | GF | GA | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | |
| Not a FIFA member | Not a FIFA member | ||||||||||||||
| Did not enter | Did not enter | ||||||||||||||
| Did not qualify | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | |||||||||
| 10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 16 | ||||||||||
| 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 9 | ||||||||||
| Round of 16 | 12th | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 28 | 7 | ||
| Group stage | 28th | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 14 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 26 | 7 | ||
| Group stage | 32nd | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 14 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 47 | 8 | ||
| Group stage | 28th | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 12 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 24 | 2 | ||
| Did not qualify | 16 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 25 | 15 | |||||||||
| 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 7 | ||||||||||
| Group stage | 26th | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 18 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 45 | 14 | ||
| Group stage | 25th | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 18 | 13 | 4 | 1 | 34 | 10 | ||
| Qualified | 18 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 22 | 13 | |||||||||
| To be determined | To be determined | ||||||||||||||
| Qualified as hosts | Qualified as hosts | ||||||||||||||
| Total | Round of 16 | 6/17 | 19 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 14 | 44 | 154 | 89 | 38 | 27 | 288 | 116 | |
| Opponent | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 100.00 | |
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 100.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 000.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 000.00 | |
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 100.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | −4 | 000.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | −8 | 000.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 000.00 | |
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 100.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 000.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | −2 | 000.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | −3 | 000.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | −5 | 000.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | +0 | 000.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 000.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 000.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | +0 | 000.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | −4 | 000.00 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 000.00 | |
| Total | 19 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 14 | 44 | −30 | 021.05 |
| Rank | Player | Matches | World Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mohamed Al-Deayea | 10 | 1994, 1998 and 2002 |
| 2 | Sami Al-Jaber | 9 | 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006 |
| Abdullah Zubromawi | 9 | 1994, 1998 and 2002 | |
| Hussein Abdulghani | 9 | 1998, 2002 and 2006 | |
| 5 | Mohammed Al-Khilaiwi | 6 | 1994 and 1998 |
| Khaled Al-Muwallid | 6 | 1994 and 1998 | |
| Saeed Al-Owairan | 6 | 1994 and 1998 | |
| Fuad Anwar Amin | 6 | 1994 and 1998 | |
| Hamzah Saleh | 6 | 1994 and 1998 | |
| Ibrahim Al-Shahrani | 6 | 1998 and 2002 | |
| Nawaf Al-Temyat | 6 | 1998, 2002 and 2006 | |
| Redha Tukar | 6 | 2002 and 2006 | |
| Salem Al-Dawsari | 6 | 2018 and 2022 |
Sami Al-Jaber is not only the most successful Saudi striker at the FIFA World Cup to date, he also managed to score in World Cups twelve years apart (1994 and 2006). He shares this record with eight other players, among themPelé,Diego Maradona,Miroslav Klose,Lionel Messi andCristiano Ronaldo.
| Rank | Player | Goals | World Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sami Al-Jaber | 3 | 1994, 1998 and 2006 |
| Salem Al-Dawsari | 3 | 2018 (1) and 2022 (2) | |
| 3 | Fuad Anwar Amin | 2 | 1994 |
| 4 | Saeed Al-Owairan | 1 | 1994 |
| Fahad Al-Ghesheyan | 1 | 1994 | |
| Yousuf Al-Thunayan | 1 | 1998 | |
| Yasser Al-Qahtani | 1 | 2006 | |
| Salman Al-Faraj | 1 | 2018 | |
| Saleh Al-Shehri | 1 | 2022 |