Saudi Arabia at the FIFA World Cup

This is a record of Saudi Arabia's results at the FIFA World Cup. The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.

Russia vs Saudi Arabia match at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia

The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World 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 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.^[1]

Saudi Arabia has qualified for a total of seven FIFA World Cup tournaments, having played in 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018, 2022, and 2034 as hosts. Their best performance was in 1994, where they reached the round of 16.

Records

FIFA World Cup record										FIFA World Cup qualification record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1930	Not a FIFA member									Not a FIFA member
1934
1938
1950
1954
1958	Did not enter									Did not enter
1962
1966
1970
1974
1978	Did not qualify									4	1	0	3	3	7
1982										10	4	1	5	9	16
1986										2	0	1	1	0	1
1990										9	4	3	2	11	9
1994	Round of 16	12th	4	2	0	2	5	6		11	6	5	0	28	7
1998	Group stage	28th	3	0	1	2	2	7		14	9	3	2	26	7
2002	Group stage	32nd	3	0	0	3	0	12		14	11	2	1	47	8
2006	Group stage	28th	3	0	1	2	2	7		12	10	2	0	24	2
2010	Did not qualify									16	8	5	3	25	15
2014										8	3	3	2	14	7
2018	Group stage	26th	3	1	0	2	2	7		18	12	3	3	45	14
2022	Group stage	25th	3	1	0	2	3	5		18	13	4	1	34	10
2026	Qualifications in progress									8	5	2	1	15	5
2030	To be determined									To be determined
2034	Qualified as hosts									Qualified as hosts
Total	Round of 16	6/17	19	4	2	13	14	44		142	84	34	24	277	107

List of matches

World Cup	Round	Opponent	Score	Result	Venue	Saudi Arabia scorers
1994	Group stage	Netherlands	1–2	L	Washington	Anwar
		Morocco	2–1	W	East Rutherford	Al-Jaber, Anwar
		Belgium	1–0	W	Washington	Al-Owairan
	Round of 16	Sweden	1–3	L	Dallas	Al-Ghesheyan
1998	Group stage	Denmark	0–1	L	Lens	—
		France	0–4	L	Saint-Denis	—
		South Africa	2–2	D	Bordeaux	Al-Jaber, Al-Thunayan
2002	Group stage	Germany	0–8	L	Sapporo	—
		Cameroon	0–1	L	Saitama	—
		Republic of Ireland	0–3	L	Yokohama	—
2006	Group stage	Tunisia	2–2	D	Munich	Al-Qahtani, Al-Jaber
		Ukraine	0–4	L	Hamburg	—
		Spain	0–1	L	Kaiserslautern	—
2018	Group stage	Russia	0–5	L	Moscow	—
		Uruguay	0–1	L	Rostov-on-Don	—
		Egypt	2–1	W	Volgograd	S. Al-Dawsari, Al-Faraj
2022	Group stage	Argentina	2–1	W	Lusail	Al-Shehri, S. Al-Dawsari
		Poland	0–2	L	Al Rayyan	—
		Mexico	1–2	L	Lusail	S. Al-Dawsari

Record players

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

Top goalscorers

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 them Pelé, Diego Maradona, Miroslav Klose, Lionel Messi and Cristiano 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

Squads

See also

• Asian nations at the FIFA World Cup
• Saudi Arabia at the AFC Asian Cup