Salman Mohammed Mohammed Al-Faraj (; born 1 August 1989) is a Saudi Arabian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

Saudi First Division League The Saudi First Division League (), currently known as the Yelo League for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of professional football in Saudi Arabia. It ranks below the Saudi Pro League and above the Saudi Second Division League in the ...

club

Neom Neom (styled NEOM; , ) is an arcology and planned city being built by Saudi Arabia in Tabuk Province. Launched in 2017 by crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, the site is at the northern tip of the Red Sea, due east of Egypt across the Gulf of A ...

and

captains Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

the Saudi Arabia national team.

Club career

Al Hilal

Al-Faraj was a one-club man of Al Hilal.

Neom

On July 28, 2024, Al-Faraj completed his transfer to

, a team in the

International career

Al-Faraj's first match with his

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

was against Congo in an international friendly at

Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Stadium Prince Abdullah bin Jalawi Sport City is a football stadium in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia. It is used mainly for football and hosts the home matches of Al Fateh and Hajer Club of the Saudi Professional League. The stadium has a seating capacity of 19 ...

al-Hasa Al-Ahsa or Al-Hasa may refer to: * Al-Ahsa Eyalet, or Lahsa Eyalet, a subdivision of the Ottoman Empire, now part of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar * Al-Ahsa Oasis, an oasis and historical region in eastern Saudi Arabia. ** Al-Ahsa Governorate, a ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

on 14 October 2012. The match ended in a 3–2 win. In December 2014, he was named in the Saudi squad for the

2015 AFC Asian Cup The 2015 AFC Asian Cup was the 16th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international association football, football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in Australia from 9 to 31 January 201 ...

in Australia. Salman's first goal with his national team was against

Timor-Leste Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

during the

second round The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

of the

2018 World Cup qualifiers Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number) * One of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short story ''God's Dice'' * ''Eighteen'' (film), a 20 ...

King Abdullah Sports City King Abdullah Sports City Stadium (), known as Alinma Bank, Alinma Stadium due to sponsorship reasons, also nicknamed The Shining Jewel () or simply The Jewel, is a Multi-purpose stadium and the main stadium of the sports city located 30 kilome ...

, in

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), alternatively transliterated as Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; , ), is a List of governorates of Saudi Arabia, governorate and the largest city in Mecca Province, Saudi Arabia, and the country's second largest city after Riyadh, located ...

, Saudi Arabia on 3 September 2015. The match ended in a 7–0 win. In May 2018, he was named in Saudi Arabia's preliminary

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of Military organization, military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and United States, U.S. doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a fireteam, ...

for the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting rights in l ...

in Russia. On 4 June, Salman was included in 23-man squad for the World Cup. On 25 June, Salman scored the equalizing goal and his first ever World Cup goal from the penalty kick in a 2–1 victory over

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

in their last group stage match of the tournament; it was Saudi Arabia's lone win in the tournament as the team crashed out of the group stage. In June 2021, he assumed the role of captain for the national team at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. Subsequently, in November 2022, he earned a spot in the 26-man squad for the

2022 World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

in Qatar. However, under the coaching of

Roberto Mancini Roberto Mancini (; born 27 November 1964) is an Italian football manager and former player who was most recently the head coach of the Saudi Arabia national team. As a player, Mancini operated as a deep-lying forward, and was best known for h ...

, Al-Faraj was excluded from the squad for the

2023 AFC Asian Cup The 2023 AFC Asian Cup was the 18th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It involved 24 national teams after its expansion in 20 ...

, reportedly due to off-field issues and frictions.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Statistics accurate as of match played 17 October 2023.''

International goals

:''Scores and results list Saudi Arabia's goal tally first.''

Honours

Al-Hilal *

Saudi Pro League The Saudi Pro League (SPL), also known as the Roshn Saudi League (RSL) for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Saudi Arabia and the highest level of the Saudi football league system. The SPL is regarded as th ...

, 2009–10,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 2021–22, 2023–24 *

King's Cup (Saudi Arabia) The King Cup (sometimes spelled King's Cup) (), officially known as The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques' Cup (), is the Football in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabian Association football, football Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competitio ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, 2019–20,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 2023–24 *

Saudi Crown Prince Cup The Saudi Crown Prince's Cup () was the oldest Saudi Arabian annual cup competition. History The cup was the oldest and first domestic football competition in Saudi Arabia; the first edition was held in 1956–57; five editions were played betwe ...

: 2008–09, 2009–10,

, 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2015–16 *

Saudi Super Cup The Saudi Super Cup () is the annual super cup tournament in Saudi Arabian football. Founded in 2013 as a two-team competition, the Super Cup has been contested by four teams since 2022: the winners and runners-up of the King's Cup and the Sa ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

References

External links

*
Salman Al-Faraj
at Saudi League {{DEFAULTSORT:Faraj, Salman 1989 births Living people Footballers from Medina Men's association football midfielders Saudi Arabian men's footballers Al Hilal SFC players Neom SC players Saudi Pro League players Saudi First Division League players Saudi Arabia men's youth international footballers 21st-century Saudi Arabian sportsmen Saudi Arabia men's international footballers 2015 AFC Asian Cup players 2018 FIFA World Cup players Olympic footballers for Saudi Arabia Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics 2022 FIFA World Cup players AFC Champions League Elite–winning players