At the age of 61, the star of the Saudi national team, Shaya Al-Nafisa, passed away

Today, Sunday, Shaya Al-Nafisa, the star of Al-Kawkab Club and the first Saudi football team in the eighties, died at the age of 61, and he will be prayed for on Monday in Al-Kharj Governorate.

Among the 32 international matches in which he participated, he played in 23 matches and scored 10 goals against the national teams of Indonesia, Algeria, Oman, Kuwait, Nepal, China and Qatar.

His first international match with the Saudi national team was against Indonesia on December 12, 1980, where Al-Akhdar won with eight clean goals, scoring two of them. He also played in the 1982 World Cup qualifiers and participated in the Bahrain match, in which Al-Akhdar won with a clean goal, and also participated in the World Cup. The Gulf Cup, which took place in the Emirates in 1982 and Oman in 1984, and in the Gulf Cup, which took place in Bahrain in 1986.

He was an influential player in leading the Saudi national team to win the Asian Nations Cup, as he scored the first goal against China at the 10th minute of the match, before Majid Abdullah, Saudi Arabia’s top scorer, reinforced the score with a second goal against the “Dragon”, and also participated in the Asian qualifiers for the Olympics. Los Angeles in 1984.

Al-Nafisa, one of the best Saudi football strikers in the eighties, contributed to the Saudi national team reaching the final of the football competition in the Asian Games, where he participated in the final of the competition against South Korea, which Al-Akhdar lost with two clean goals.

His training was supervised by the three famous Brazilians, Manelli Zagallo and Jose Castillo, and the dean of Saudi coaches, Khalil Al-Zayani.

Al-Nafisa led the Al-Kawkab team, one of the first-class clubs at the time, to rise to the Saudi League at a time when it was full of great stars such as Majed Abdullah, Saleh Al-Naima, Muhammad Abdel-Gawad, Amin Dabo and Othman Marzouq, and he achieved remarkable results with his team in the Saudi League during that period.

Amidst his distinction and brilliance in those years, he succeeded in capturing the attention and lights in Saudi football, as he received offers at the time to move from Al-Kawkab to Al-Hilal, Al-Nasr and Al-Ittihad clubs, but he preferred to stay with his current club in Al-Kharj Governorate.