A Look Back: Al Shabab's 2011-12 RSL "Invincibles"

“This triumph is due to the efforts of everyone in the team, not just the players who were on the pitch, but also the ones on the bench, the ones who were in the stands, the coaching staff, the medical staff, the management - everyone had a role to play in this achievement.”

Those were the words of Naif Al Qadhi, a former national team star who was part of the Saudi Arabia squad at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. The achievement to which he is referring is Al Shabab being crowned Roshn Saudi League champions in the 2011-12 season.

Last season’s winners, Al Hilal, rightly celebrated their achievement of capturing the title without losing a single game, but as impressive as that feat was, it was not unique in the history of the Kingdom’s top flight. Al Shabab’s own "Invincibles" season, 12 years removed, was also the last time they climbed to the summit Saudi football.

Perhaps less recognised outside the Kingdom than Riyadh rivals Al Hilal and Al Nassr, Al Shabab were actually the original football club in the capital, founded almost a decade before Al Hilal and Al Nassr came into existence.

Al Shabab’s is a history full of success, such as when they became the first Saudi club to win a hat-trick of titles, from 1991 to 1993. There are six league titles in total, keeping company with three King’s Cup triumphs and continental glory in the form of the Asian Cup Winners Cup in 2001.

While Al Shabab have fallen on leaner times in the past decade, in the early-mid 2000s they were one of the league’s most dominant teams. They claimed championship titles in 2003-04 and 2005-06, with a runners-up finish in the intervening season.

From 2003 to 2014, Al Shabab never finished outside the top four, lifted the King’s Cup twice and made the semi-final of the 2010 AFC Champions League. They missed out on the final only on away goals, to eventual champions Seongnam Ilhwa-Chunma of South Korea. All of this is to say that Al Shabab were, and remain, a huge club in Saudi football.

Heading into that 2011-12 season, on the back of three straight fourth-placed finishes, Al Shabab had their eyes firmly on getting back to the top of the domestic game. Belgian coach Michel Preud'homme, fresh off winning the KNVB Cup in the Netherlands with FC Twente, was handed the managerial reins, taking over from Enzo Trossero.

In coaching circles, Preud'homme’s was a star on the rise. In 2008, he delivered Standard Liege their first league title since the 1980s, while he guided KAA Gent to a second-placed finish in 2010 - their highest position in half a century. His signing was seen a significant coup for Al Shabab.

The 52-year-old former goalkeeper was also no stranger to Saudi football. Ironically, without ever having stepped foot in the country, he had played a part in one of the Kingdom’s finest football moments.

Saeed Al Owairan’s magical goal at the 1994 FIFA World Cup is a moment that still lives long in the memory of any Saudi fan, and it was Preud'homme who stood in goal for Belgium that blisteringly hot day in Washington as the then-Al Shabab midfielder scored one of the tournament’s all-time great goals.

At Al Shabab, and deciding upon keeping the core of the squad together from the previous season, Preud'homme instead made significant changes to his foreign contingent.

He brought in Brazilian Fernando Menegazzo from French side Bordeaux, Guinea striker Ibrahim Yattara from Trabzonspor, and Uzbek superstar Server Djeparov, who a few months later was named AFC Player of the Year, from FC Seoul. Meanwhile, Wendel, another Brazilian, joined mid-season from Al Ittihad.

The ace up Al Shabab's sleeve, however, was a firebrand striker by the name of Nasser Al Shamrani. Since moving from Al Wehda ahead of the 2007-08 campaign, Al Shamrani had established himself as the country’s hottest prospect, bagging 56 goals in four seasons. During that spell, he won the league's golden boot three times.

The 2011-12 season started on the perfect note for Al Shabab, who triumphed in their opening four matches, including a 2-0 win against rivals Al Hilal in the second week. Al Shamrani fired home both goals.

In a portent of things to come in a season in which the top three ended up being separated by only three points, four different teams occupied top spot in the first five rounds. Al Ettifaq kept pace early, and were out in front after nine matches before falling away to leave Al Shabab, Al Hilal and Al Ahli to duke it out for the trophy.

Coming at the halfway point of the season in Matchweek 13, Al Shabab’s clash with Al Ahli had the potential to shape the title race in the second half of the season. Al Ahli’s gun Brazilian marksman, Victor Simoes, opened the scoring after 12 minutes and, for a long time, it looked like being the goal that would end Al Shabab’s undefeated streak. In the process, it would draw Al Ahli back level at the summit.

But Al Shamrani stepped up deep into second-half stoppage-time to salvage a point, which not only kept Al Shabab top of the table but maintained a three-point gap to Al Ahli. Two further draws followed that, including a 0-0 with Al Hilal, saw Preud'homme’s side surrender top spot, which they wouldn’t regain for another six rounds until a 4-0 win over Najran in Matchweek 19.

It’s a lead, from that point, they wouldn’t surrender. Even if it remained tantalisingly tight. A final-round encounter with Al Ahli set up a winner-takes-all decider, with a win being enough for the Jeddah side to leapfrog Al Shabab back into top spot.

But another 1-1 draw, thanks again to an Al Shamrani strike, secured Al Shabab’s sixth league title. To the newly anointed champions’ credit, they stood strong in front of a hostile Jeddah crowd.

“The fans of Al Ahli were probably the best this season and with full respect towards them, I must say: Jeddah is a beautiful city, where we enjoyed ourselves,” Al Shamrani, who finished as the league’s joint-top scorer with 21 goals, said during the celebrations. “But now we go to Riyadh [with the title].”

Other players, meanwhile, paid tribute to the club for the success.

“This was the result of an entire season's effort,” said veteran midfielder Omar Al Ghamdi who, like Al Qadhi, also played at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. “This was a decisive game, and it would have been a shame if we played well throughout the season and then faltered here.

"But the players showed they were up to the task… we thank God for this triumph.”

Twelve years on, Al Shabab seem intent on forming the building blocks to again challenge for the RSL title. Last season, following Vitor Pereira's astute appointment, they rebounded from a poor start to eventually finish eighth and this year they are looking much higher up the table.

Heading into the 2024-25 RSL resumption's with Matchweek 7, Al Shabab lie fourth, one win off second. They kick back into action on Friday by hosting a mouth-watering Riyadh derby with third-placed Al Nassr, where the stage will be set for a potentially momentus result.

And, if inspiration was ever needed, Al Shabab's current crop could simply cast the mind back to that incredible 2011-12 achievement. To Al Shabab's impenetrable "Invincibles".