MW15 In Focus: Al Kholood upset elite, Hamdallah bites back, Al Salem stays red-hot

The Roshn Saudi League continues to deliver, with Matchweek 15 highlighted by a record score, Fatih Terim’s first league win in the Kingdom, and competition debutants bloodying yet more noses.

Here’s our main talking points from the round.

Champions flex their muscles

Not content with returning from the winter break and immediately reclaiming top spot, champions Al Hilal decided to send a major statement to anyone bidding to snatch away their top-flight title.

In a match pitting top against bottom, Jorge Jesus’ side thumped Al Fateh 9-0 at home on Thursday, equalling their biggest victory in RSL history – the same result, last season against Al Hazem.

This time, Marcos Leonardo deserved the majority of the headlines, with the summer signing from Benfica notching a first hat-trick for the club. His third was also Al Hilal’s 1,000th goal of the SPL era, etching the Brazilian winger’s name in the record books. And all this, too, without 2024-25 RSL leading scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic, who remains unavailable through injury.

Despite the margin of victory, the championship race remains the same: Al Hilal lead Al Ittihad solely on goal difference following the 2022-23 champions 4-1 victory at home to Al Raed, also on Thursday. A 9-0 win, therefore, could prove crucial come season’s end.

Hamdallah reminds he’s gunning for record

Last week’s huge transfer news centred around the return of a certain Omar Al Somah. The former Al Ahli striker, the RSL’s all-time top scorer, landed back in the Kingdom following a two-and-a-half-year hiatus, after signing for Al Orobah.

At 144 goals, Al Somah sits out in front in the history books, 10 clear of closest challenger Abderrazak Hamdallah. Oh, what the Moroccan, now at Al Shabab, must have been thinking when Al Somah’s comeback was confirmed.

Saying that, a bit of competitive rivalry can stoke the fire, and so it proved when Hamdallah responded to the Al Somah news by adding to his all-time tally with the winner for the hosts in the derby against Al Riyadh on Wednesday. Thus, the gap to Al Somah, who rather appropriately could make his Al Orobah debut in the RSL's inaugural "Legends Week", was cut by one.

That it came in the seventh minute of added time, and in the process sealed Fatih Terim’s first RSL win and drew Al Shabab level with fifth-placed Al Ahli, would have only deepened Hamdallah’s delight.

Al Shabab had come from 1-0 down to triumph 2-1, and Hamdallah and fellow summer signing Daniel Podence suggested a formidable understanding has already taken root. The former assisted the latter for the leveller, with roles reversed to claim a last-gasp three points.

Al Kholood claim another scalp

What a start to 2025 Al Kholood are enjoying. Initially, the fixture list did not make for promising reading, with the RSL debutants handed a tricky away encounter at Steven Gerrard’s Al Ettifaq and a home clash with an in-form Al Ahli.

Then they went and took maximum points from both. A later-than-late victory in Dammam was followed by a stellar 1-0 win in Buraidah on Wednesday, where Alex Collado’s sublime solo effort decided it. In securing a second successive success, and third in four RSL outings, Al Kholood snapped Al Ahli’s winning streak at five matches.

Collado, a product of Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy, has been a key player in Al Kholood’s climb to 12th, since the Spaniard carries a large proportion of his team’s creative play. Much credit should go, as well, to manager Noureddine Ben Zerki, whose reputation as an RSL survival specialist grows having joined the club in October.

If their New Year form is anything to go by, Al Kholood are in for a cracking second half to the season.

Al Salem’s dream season sustains

Take in the 2024-25 scoring charts, and past the “Big Three” who lead the way - Mitrovic (12), Al Nassr's Cristiano Ronaldo (11) and Al Ittihad’s Karim Benzema (11) - and sitting there just below in joint fifth is Abdullah Al Salem.

On Friday, the Al Khaleej striker opened the scoring in his side’s 3-0 home win against Al Orobah, lifting his league haul for the season to eight goals. As such, Al Salem perches proudly as the campaign’s most prolific Saudi Arabia, with double the amount of the next best, Al Shabab’s Musab Al Juwayr.

Al Salem was already enjoying his finest season individually in the RSL, but he shows no sign of slowing down. He now has eight goals in 13 appearances this term, propelling Al Khaleej’s assault on the top-four spots. Georgios Donis’ side are currently seventh, although only three points back from Al Ahli in fifth – and six from fourth-placed Al Nassr.

After Al Taawoun’s unexpected-but-excellent fourth last season, could Al Khaleej be the next club to upset the applecart? With Al Salem finding the net on a consistent basis, ably supported by the evergreen Fabio Martins and with Egypt’s Mohamed Sherif off the mark also – all three scored on Friday – dreams of continental football next season suddenly don’t feel that far-fetched.

At present, it feels a case of one step forward, two steps back for Al Nassr. Last season’s runners-up marked their return from the break by confidently dispatching Al Okhdood last week, with Ronaldo scoring to maintain his push to hold onto the golden boot he clinched in record-breaking fashion. The 3-1 win also moved Al Nassr back into third, at Al Qadsiah’s expense.

Yet, then on Friday, they needed Aymeric Laporte’s intervention around the hour to salvage a 1-1 draw with Al Taawoun. Ronaldo tried repeatedly to fire his team to victory, but in the end had to settle for a share of the spoils. With it, coupled with Al Qadsiah’s emphatic 3-0 success at Al Wehda, Al Nassr slipped back to fourth – and further behind in the title race.

It continues the club’s inconsistent run in the RSL: Al Nassr have won only three times in eight, with two defeats in their past five. Just as manager Stefano Pioli had settled superbly – he won his first four in the league after replacing Luis Castro – he is now struggling to get a tune out of his side. In turn, the pressure is ramping up.