Al Ettifaq's impressive Al Shehri flying flag for Saudi coaches in RSL | OneFootball

Whether it was just the seemingly inevitable uptick in performance that comes from the “new coach bounce”, or a hint at a more prosperous future, Saad Al Shehri would’ve been thrilled with his side’s 3-1 win against Al Shabab to kick-start his reign as Al Ettifaq manager.

The 45-year-old was installed last week after Steven Gerrard’s 18-month stint in Dammam came to an end with a mutual parting of the ways. At the halfway stage of the 2024-25 Roshn Saudi League, Al Ettifaq were sitting 12th, with two wins to their name since September.

Then, last Friday, it was noticeable in the celebrations that came with the decisive third goal just what the victory meant for the club. As captain Georginio Wijnaldum sprinted the length of the pitch to score, the bench rose in unison before bursting across the touchline to celebrate with the goalscorer and the rest of the team.

Al Shehri, meanwhile, beamed from the sidelines, safe in the knowledge that Al Ettifaq had put a turbulent and disruptive week behind them to get their season back on track.

“Important win, important three points,” the Saudi Arabian said afterwards. “I had one training session with the team, and I couldn’t say we did everything, [but] the players took responsibility of this game, as we promised each other at training.

“Hopefully, next game, the responsibility will be bigger, [but] the players performed very well, they tried to keep the balance. [It is] three important points for us, but our performances must be better. There are many other aspects to work on: moral, technical, tactical and physical.”

While one swallow does not make a summer, Dammam-born Al Shehri couldn’t have asked for a better homecoming for what is his second stint in charge of the East Coast club.

As a player, he began his career in Al Ettifaq’s youth ranks before progressing to the first team. And, aside from a stint with Riyadh’s Al Nassr, he spent all his professional playing time in the Eastern Province, representing Al Qadsiah, Al Jubail and Al Thoqbah before his career was cut short by injury.

With an obvious thirst for the game, Al Shehri turned his hand to coaching, initially with youth teams at Al Qadsiah and Al Nassr. He then spent time in charge of the Saudi Under-20 national team, where they reached the final of the 2016 AFC U19 Championships and progressed to the Round of 16 at the 2017 FIFA U20 World Cup.

Stock on the rise, Al Shehri’s first appointment at club level was as an interim manager back at Al Ettifaq, when he replaced Miodrag Jesic for the second half of the 2017-18 season.

Taking over a team second bottom and staring down relegation, Al Shehri, a former physical education teacher, masterminded a spirited fightback, with Al Ettifaq rising all the way to fourth by the end of the campaign. He had guided them to eight wins and a draw from 16 games.

It represented a fabulous return for a relative rookie, results that only boosted his reputation as an emerging talent within the Kingdom’s coaching ranks. Al Shehri was soon drafted back into the national-team programme, this time with the U23s. And, once again, he found success.

In early 2020, before the grip of COVID shut down the world, Al Shehri took his side to the AFC U23 Championships in Thailand, beating Japan in the opening game and eventually topping the group.

Wins against host nation Thailand and Uzbekistan followed in the quarter-finals and semis, with Saudi making the final for the first time since 2013. With it, they ensured qualification for a first Olympic Games since 1996. In the final, though, Saudi were beaten 1-0 in extra-time by South Korea.

Yet Al Shehri would not be deterred. Two years later, he went one better at the AFC U23 Asian Cup - as it was renamed - defeating hosts Uzbekistan 2-0 in the final in a fierce battle in front of almost 33,000 fans in Tashkent. The win brought Saudi its first continental triumph at U23 level.

It was a team stacked with talent, including current AS Roma full-back Saud Abdulhamid, Hassan Al Tambakti, Moteb Al Harbi and Feras Al Buraikan. For sure, Al Shehri can rightly claim to have played an important role in the stars’ development having worked with them closely across a number of years.

While the Asian Cup success undoubtedly boosted the reputation of his players, so it did for him as a coach. But, until last week, opportunities at domestic level had proved elusive as clubs cast the net abroad for a variety of reasons.

It’s why Al Shehri’s appointment at Al Ettifaq feels so significant, because he is flying the flag for all Saudi coaches looking for an opportunity.

Having developed a standing as a progressive, attacking coach, Al Shehri will want to unlock his new side’s goalscoring woes (Al Ettifaq scored 19 goals in their opening 17 RSL matches this season, the fourth lowest in the division). Three goals in his debut game, then, suggests he may already have found an answer.

While Al Ettifaq weren’t incredibly active during the winter transfer window, they did manage to bring in promising midfielder Mukhtar Ali, a player Al Shehri knows well from his time as U23 manager. The former Chelsea youngster played five of six matches at the AFC U23 Championships in 2020 and featured also at the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021.

There are others, such as Abdullah Radif, that Al Shehri has worked with previously that can benefit from his arrival as well. The striker, on loan from Al Hilal, is full of unfulfilled potential and Al Saleh understands how to extract the best out of him.

With matches against Al Okhdood and Al Fateh to come in the next two weeks - teams below them in the table - an opportunity exists for Al Saleh and Al Ettifaq to generate momentum and get their season back trending in the right direction.

It’s a chance, too, for Al Shehri to showcase that Saudi coaches have the credentials to flourish in the increasingly multi-cultural RSL.