Abdullah Al-Garni Explained

Abdullah Al-Garni
Birth Date:18 February 1987
Birth Place:Sabt Alalaya, Asir Province, Saudi Arabia
Height:5feet
Position:Central Defender
Youthyears1:
Youthclubs1:Al-Zayton
Years1:2007–2008
Years2:2008–2009
Caps2:13
Goals2:0
Years3:2009–2010
Clubs3:Al Nassr
Caps3:19
Goals3:2
Years4:2008–2009
Clubs4:Al-Qadisiyah FC
Caps4:3
Goals4:0
Years5:2009–2010
Clubs5:Al-Fateh SC
Caps5:0
Goals5:0
Years6:2008–2009
Clubs6:Al-Khaleej
Nationalgoals1:0l
Pcupdate:01:34, 17 June 2010 (EST)

Abdullah Al-Garni (Arabic: عبد الله القرني; born 18 February 1987) is a Saudi Arabian footballer. He currently plays as a defender for Al-Nassr in the Saudi Professional League.

Early club career

Al-Garni joined his birthplace football club Al-Zaytoon FC in Sabt Alalaya town. He first played as a defensive midfielder. At this time his team was competing the Saudi Arabian 3rd division league. After a while he decided to leave his hometown to complete his education in Aramco Institute. He was playing football non-professionally with colleagues in Aramco football team.

Abha 2008/2009

After Abha's promotion to the Saudi Professional League, Al-Garni went back to get closer to his hometown and signed a one-year contract with Abha. That is when he first played as a central defender under a supervision of the technical manager Mahdi Al-Ragdi. He made his debut with Abha against Al-Ittihad in the sixth round of the Saudi Professional League 2008–09. Since then, Al-Garni continued in Abha's line-up squad until ending the season with relegation to the Saudi First Division League.

Al-Nassr 2009/2010

As the previous technical manager, Edgardo Bauza, was looking for young defenders. He scouted Al-Garni and requested the youngster's service from Abha. Al-Nassr management signed, after a dramatic transfer, a five-year contract with Al-Garni, together with his Abha teammate Khaled Al-Zylaeei, starting from 15 July 2009[1]

Al-Garni participated in a preparatory training camp in Barcelona, Spain, with the new Uruguayan manager, Jorge da Silva. However, Al-Garni was deemed not yet mature enough to assume the reserve position for his team. He played a couple of matches with Al-Nassr U-23 team, which is considered to be team B in some countries, where he scored the first goal with Al-Nassr against Al Shabab. In the ninth round of the Saudi Professional League, Al-Nassr played the worst 45 minutes against Al-Ahli from Jeddah when they received three goals ending the first half 3-0 for Al-Ahli. Al-Garni joined as a substitute at the beginning of the second half and Al-Nassr succeed to get to end up the tough match with a big draw 3-3. Since then, he kept his position in the team until the end of the season.

International career

Al-Garni called up for the Saudi Arabia national team for the first time at the end of the season 2009–10[2] He suffered a knee injury during the training camp which was in Austria.[3] He could not make his debut for the national team yet.

Notes and References

  1. http://www.nassr.com/showthread.php?t=18921 Al-Garni signed for Al-Nassr (Arabic)
  2. http://www.goal.com/ar-sa/news/3021/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9/2010/05/04/1908992/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A6%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%81%D9%82-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%85%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%8A Saudi Football Federation announces names of national team players (Arabic)
  3. http://www.goal.com/ar-sa/news/3021/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9/2010/05/24/1939867/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%B6%D8%B1-%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B5%D9%84-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B9%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%87-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF%D8%A9 The Green Falcons continue preparations for Nigeria (Arabic)