The Saudi Pro League has hit the spotlight with an influx of foreign imports such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema in recent seasons. But, what about those players who broke records in times gone by?
With the Saudi top-flight being founded in 1976, many legends of the league have already set records. This article explores the top five Saudi Pro League goal scorers of all time.
Saudi Pro League | Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | GD | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Hilal | 34 | 31 | 3 | 0 | +78 | 96 | |
| 2 |  Nassr | 34 | 26 | 4 | 4 | +58 | 82 | |
| 3 |  Ahli | 34 | 19 | 8 | 7 | +32 | 65 | |
| Last updated 21/11/2024 | ||||||||
Homegrown player Fahd Al-Hamdan spent his entire playing career at Saudi Pro League side Al-Riyadh between 1984-2000. Al-Hamdan, who passed away at the age of 47 in 2013 also represented the Saudi Arabian national team, scoring three goals in nine appearances.
Despite playing in the second tier of Saudi Arabian football for three years, Al-Hamdan netted 120 times in 252 appearances in the Saudi Pro League. His best goalscoring season totalled 15 league goals, which came in the 1994/95 season, and 1997/98 campaign.
During his time at Al-Riyadh, Al-Hamdan helped his side win the only major honour in the club’s history, the Crown Prince Cup in 1993/94, where he netted two goals in the competition. Al-Hamdan also bagged 14 goals in the league where AL-Riyadh finished runners-up, which is their highest finish to date.
Nicknamed The Executioner, Abderrazak Hamdallah is a Moroccan international who currently plays in the Saudi Pro League for Al-Ittihad. Hamdallah aged 33 has netted an impressive 129 goals in 137 appearances since 2018.
Hamdallah signed for Al-Nassr from Qatari side AL-Rayyan in 2018. His debut season saw an impressive 34 goals in 26 appearances, earning the Golden Boot Award and being named player of the season. Another impressive season followed, netting 29 times in 27 games with back-to-back Golden Boot awards. His final season at Al-Nassr saw him bag 14 goals in 21 league appearances, with a total of 77 goals.
Since Hamdallah’s move to Al-Ittihad in 2021, he’s added an additional 52 goals in 63 appearances, earning a 3rd Golden Boot in the 2022/23 season with 21 goals.
| Player | % | Matches | Scored First | Fixture | Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1  Saleh Al Shehri | 66.7% | 3 | 2 | Fateh (H) | |
2  M. Barrow | 50.0% | 10 | 5 | Wehda (A) | |
3 A. Mitrović | 50.0% | 10 | 5 | Khaleej (A) | |
4  Cristian Tello | 50.0% | 6 | 3 | Raed (A) | |
5 Abdulkarim Darisi | 50.0% | 2 | 1 | Fayha (A) |
Syrian-born Omar Al Somah currently plays for Qatar Stars League side Al-Arabi after joining from Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli in 2022. Al Somah spent eight years in the Saudi Pro League, yielding 144 goals in 180 appearances.
The 34-year-old was the top scorer in three consecutive seasons for Al-Ahli, netting 22 times in the 2014/25 season. This was backed up by an impressive 27 goals the following season. And then in 2016/17, he scored another 24 goals to be the first player since Majed Abdullah in 1981 to win the golden boot award in the Saudi Pro League three years running.
During his time at Al-Ahli, he won the domestic treble in 2016, which was his most successful goal-scoring season. The team triumphed in the Saudi Pro League alongside the Saudi Pro Cup and King Cup.
Al Somah has also netted 19 times in 38 international appearances for Syria.
One of the most prolific scorers in Saudi Pro League history, Nasser Al-Shamrani contributed 167 goals in 301 games, over a 16-year spell with four different clubs.
During his early career at Al-Wehda, goals were at a premium with Al Shamrani netting 20 goals in 56 games over a four-year period. During this time, he spent time on loan at Al-Shabab, scoring three times in six matches.
Al-Shabab is where Al-Shamrani found his home. In 123 appearances, he managed 87 goals. He earned four Golden Boot awards during his six year stay with the club, alongside being named Asian Footballer of the Year in 2014. His biggest goal haul for the club came in the 2011/12 season, netting 21 goals in 25 matches.
Al-Shamrani had similar success at fellow Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal where he once again won the Golden Boot in 2013/14 with 21 goals.
Time to talk about the man at the top. With a whopping 189 goals in 194 appearances for Al-Nassr, Majed Abdullah is regarded as one of the greatest Western Asians of all time. His illustrious career also saw him represent Saudi Arabia 117 times, scoring 72 times. His goals helped establish Al-Nassr as one of the dominant forces in Asian football.
His Al-Nassr career started in 1976 and ended in 1998, with his most successful season seeing him net 21 goals in the 1980/81 season. Abdullah has also been top scorer in six seasons, making him the only player in Saudi Pro League history to achieve this. Abdullah also managed 3 Saudi Pro League hat-tricks
With four league titles and four King Cups to his name, Abdullah rounded off his career in April 1998 following Al-Nassr’s triumph in the 1998 Asian Cup Winner’s Cup in front of a 70,000 crowd.
In December 2022, Cristiano Ronaldo made a sensational switch to Al Nassr following the mutual termination of his contract at Manchester United.
Ronaldo managed to score 14 and create two assists in his first half a season at the club in 2022/23, while so far this campaign, the ex-Real Madrid man has recorded a staggering 32 goals and 10 assists in 27 matches.
The 39-year-old ranks all the way down in 25th-place, having scored 46 times in 43 Saudi Pro League matches for his club, averaging a goal every 84 minutes. At his current rate of knots, he'd likely have to play another 69 matches to feature in the top five, which equates to two seasons plus one extra game (34 game season), meaning that he could possibly move into the top spots should he play in the Saudi Pro League till his early 40s.
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