A trip to Jeddah to watch 'the biggest derby in world football' | OneFootball

Click here to read the first part of our Derby Weekend trip to Saudi Arabia.

It's a stadium to rival anything in Europe with an atmosphere that reaches almost South American-levels of crazy.

If Riyadh is the governmental and financial centre of Saudi Arabia then, from our brief time in the country, it seems Jeddah is its football capital.

I’ve travelled to the western coast of the peninsula to watch Al-Ahli take on Saudi Pro League leaders Al-Ittihad in what’s known locally as the Sea derby.

With both clubs being founded two and three decades before their rivals in the capital, this is the oldest and most prestigious game in the Kingdom and one that supporters here take very seriously.

“I think this is the biggest derby in Saudi,” Al-Ahli fan Fawad tells me in the bustling fan park before the game.

“We are the two best teams with the best fans. When you see the stadium later you will see this is one of the biggest derbies in the world.”

📸 Abdullah Ahmed - 2025 Getty Images

It’s a bold statement but it’s one that Salem, an Al-Ittihad supporter decked out in yellow and black, agrees with.

“This is a special game,” he says. “For me, the most special in all of Saudi Arabia. This is a match you do not forget.”

As I wander up towards the media entrance I speak to another Ahli fan, Ali Hamed, who is wearing a shirt with ‘Toney 99’ on the back.

I ask the teenager what he thinks of the Englishman and his impressive goal record in Saudi Arabia so far.

“He scored a hat trick against Al-Hilal but I still think he can do more. I would like him to play with more heart."

Before I can ask a follow-up question, his friend Rayan interrupts to give his own thoughts on the former Brentford striker.

“He scores goals. It’s simple. Toney does his job for our team. I love him.”

I leave the two friends to argue amongst themselves and enter the grand King Abdullah Sports City Stadium.

With its interwoven lattice exterior set against the dimming sunset, it’s the sort of desert megastructure that wouldn’t look out of place in Frank Herbert’s Dune.

Inside, three tiers of the bowl seat just under 65,000 people. Even with four hours to go before kick off you can feel that this place is going to be loud.

Although just a decade old, the stadium has a lived-in quality that was missing in Riyadh. It has an unquantifiable atmosphere that only a bit of history can offer. In short, the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium has some soul.

Kick off is getting closer and with each passing minute the suffocatingly humid night air seems to ratchet up the tension and the noise.

Directly opposite me, taking up all three tiers, are the Ahli ultras. The sound of rhythmic drums punctuates their chants as four men stand at the front of the crowd and conduct their moves like a philharmonic orchestra.

To my right are the Ittihad fans. Slightly less in number due to this being an away game, they still create a cacophonous hum.

📸 Yasser Bakhsh - 2025 Getty Images

With the players now entering the pitch, the decibel level reaches a genuinely remarkable level to the point where I can’t even hear my colleague in the seat next to me.

As the assembled squads make their way onto the turf, both sets of supporters unveil their tifos for the occasion.

First up is Ittihad who roll out a banner the length of the stand with what looks like a Spanish conquistador in yellow and black.

In the stand opposite me, every single Ahli supporter raises a piece of coloured paper to show an image of a dragon with the word ‘Caution’ taking up the entire length of the bottom tier.

Local Saudi reporter, Waled, makes me aware that the letters ‘C’ ‘a’ and ‘t’ are in yellow, a sly dig at Ittihad, nicknamed ‘the Tigers’.

📸 Yasser Bakhsh - 2025 Getty Images

The game starts and the noise levels never let up. The atmosphere remains febrile as the game’s Russian referee, Sergey Ivanov, fails to keep a handle on some of the more underhand elements of the game from both sets of players.

There’s a lot of pushing, shoving, diving and then two VAR penalty calls in the space of two minutes towards the end of the first half.

Despite being called to the screen, the referee refuses to give either spot kick, increasing the whistles once again.

It’s goalless at half time and as I go towards the elevator to the basement press room, I’m stopped by Amar, an Ahli fan in his 30s.

“Do you like the game so far?” he asks.

“The game is good. The fans are better,” I reply.

He smiles and asks where I’m from - “England,” I say.

“Do you think we have better fans than the Premier League?” Amar suggests with a sly smile.

“I think you might do,” I say as my elevator arrives and I go down for some coffee and a break from the Metallica-levels of tinnitus ringing around my head.

With refreshments procured and my ears rested, I return to my seat for what turns out to be an even wilder second half.

Roger Ibañez breaks the deadlock for Ahli with a bullet header just before the hour mark but his side are pulled back with 20 minutes to go as the lively Moussa Diaby finishes expertly from a tight angle.

As the humidity rises, gaps open up in the midfield with not even the endless energetic N’Golo Kanté able to cover every blade of grass.

With tired bodies come tired minds, and an uncharacteristically poor touch from Kanté inside his own area lands straight at the feet of Toney, who swivels his hips and nets what looks like a late winner.

The home crowd erupts and then begins to throw their tifo paper on to the pitch, covering the turf in an Argentina 1978-style.

With the game stopped for almost eight minutes, the referee adds an additional 13, much to the consternation of the home support.

That gives Ittihad enough time to throw some caution to the wind and on 90 plus five, Karim Benzema ghosts in at the far post and strikes an injury time equaliser.

With the points shared and the capacity crowd suitably hoarse, I manage to grab a very brief word with Toney in the bowels stadium.

“They were lucky,” he tersely tells me on his way to the bus.

With the night getting later but still no cooler, I remember something the bickering friends Ali Hamed and Rayan told me in our earlier fan park exchange.

“I don’t think we will ever be the English league but why not bigger than France or Germany?” Fawad said, now over six hours ago.

“We have Cristiano, Benzema, we already have the best players,” Rayan proclaims.

Perhaps my judgement is impaired by the troubling amounts of sweat, but as I leave the stadium and say goodbye to Jeddah, I find it harder and harder to disagree.

📸 Yasser Bakhsh - 2025 Getty Images