Name: Saeed Ali Al-Owairan Al-Dosari



Country: Saudi Arabia
Club: Al-Shabab
Position: *SS, CF, AMF
Side: LF/BS
Age: 23-27 years (19/8/1967)

Height: 184 cm
Weight: 76 kg

Attack: 79
Defence: 35
Balance: 83
Stamina: 76
Top Speed: 82
Acceleration: 79
Response: 73
Agility: 78
Dribble Accuracy: 81
Dribble Speed: 82
Short Pass Accuracy: 76
Short Pass Speed: 78
Long Pass Accuracy: 78
Long Pass Speed: 80
Shot Accuracy: 76
Shot Power: 86
Shot Technique: 79
Free Kick Accuracy: 71
Curling: 73
Header: 80
Jump: 77
Technique: 82
Aggression: 76
Mentality: 66
Goalkeeper Skills: 50
Team Work: 71

Injury Tolerance: B
Condition/Fitness: 5
Weak Foot Accuracy: 7
Weak Foot Frequency: 6
Consistency: 4
Growth type: Early/Lasting

CARDS:
P11 - Long Ranger
P15 - Free Roaming

SPECIAL ABILITIES: Tactical Dribble - Middle Shooting

Attack/Defence Awareness Card: Attack Minded

INFO:

Saeed Al-Owairan is probably the most famous Saudi player of all time, known for his iconic solo goal against Belgium at the 1994 World Cup, consistently ranked among the best in the competition's history. Actually IMO he wasn't one of the best Saudi players but he's certainly the one with the biggest impact on world football. Al-Owairan was a player with good dribbling skills and physical strength, primarily playing as a second striker but often playing as a centre forward for club or deeper in a midfield role for the national team. He had a good scoring record for Al-Shabab, his only club, and his main weapon was a powerful shot with which he was a constant danger from the edge of the box. He had good speed over long distances and could score with headers too, and was comfortable with both feet when dribbling and shooting. He could also produce some dangerous passes especially with long diagonals out to the wing. On the other hand, he was inconsistent and both his shooting and passing could be erratic at times. Some of his passes would fly into the middle of nowhere and with his focus on shooting with power, some shots would rocket into the stands. Also he was quite lazy and often looked uninterested, and he could disappear for large parts of games. Strangely, his iconic goal wasn't really an accurate representation of his overall play, better examples would be his goals against Argentina and UAE in 1992 or his volley against Colombia in 1994. From 1995 onwards he struggled with weight issues and his career went into decline, although he also appeared at the 1998 World Cup. He is still probably the most iconic player in the history of both his club and country to this day.

Considering this: Would you say that he is overrated because of the goal? Just by the "fame" around him I always got the impression he was the best of the 1990s Saudi players but considering your info texts it rather seems that both Al-Thunayan and Al-Bishi were better players than him.
Btw, since you didn't only watch this generation: Which Saudi players surprised you the most - both negatively and positively?

I would agree with that statement. And not just those guys, but Al-Deayea and Al-Jaber were better than him too. Al-Owairan is just one of many players that became more famous than their abilities justified because they did it at a World Cup, like Salenko, Schillaci, Goycochea etc. Without that goal, he would be similarly famous as someone like Al-Muwallid, a player of similar quality, which would be basically having no fame outside his home country. Al-Owairan was one of the best players in the Saudi league during the early 90s, of course good enough to be a regular player for the national team, but if anything I'd say he was lucky Al-Thunayan wasn't involved at that tournament, as he probably would have started in his position. Like I said in the info, that goal wasn't really a representation of his abilities, it seems like a miracle if you even just watch the rest of that game (where that's basically the only thing he does in the 90 minutes). What's funny is that in FIFA he is pretty much the best player in the game, as if he scored a goal like that every time he touched the ball



Positively, I'd go with Madani, Al-Bishi, Al-Naima and Noor, I didn't know much about them before watching but they all impressed me a lot (Noor is recent, I watched the full 2006 World Cup in the last few weeks, his stats will come soon). Al-Thunayan is also IMO the greatest Saudi player, even above Majed. There's probably hours of clips of him owning defenders with his amazing dribbling. He was a joy to watch.

Negatively, I thought Al-Khilaiwi would be better compared to other Saudi defenders considering his insane number of caps. I obviously expected more from Al-Owairan. And special shoutout to Redha Tukar, one of the most brainless players I've ever seen, he was like Felipe Melo at CB, only caring about kicking people rather than defending properly.