Full name Youssef Al-Thunayan Name Yousuf Al-Thunayan Years Team | 1981–1983 Al-Hilal Height 1.74 m | |
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Date of birth (1963-11-18) November 18, 1963 (age 52) Playing position Role Association football player Similar People Abdulrahman bin Musa'ad, Sami Al‑Jaber, Yasser Al‑Qahtani, Majed Abdullah, Mohammad Al‑Shalhoub | ||
yousif al thunayan the genius
Yousuf Al-Thunayyan (Arabic: يوسف الثُنيان, born November 18, 1963) is a former association football winger and attacking midfielder from Saudi Arabia. He spent all 21 seasons of his senior career at Al-Hilal FC. An elite playmaker, renowned for his elegance, vision, dribbling skills, ball control and technique, Al-Thunayyan was nicknamed "The Philosopher" due to his amazing abilities in terms of dribbling, unique goal scoring, and distribution. Therefore, he has been widely regarded as the greatest player in Saudi Arabia and Asia as well, and one of the greatest players of all time.
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Club career
Al-Thunayan played his entire club career for Al-Hilal, joining the first team in 1984 and retiring in 2005 after winning a total of 24 titles with the club. On 14 December 2005, Al-Hilal hosted Valencia in his farewell match.
International career
During his active career, Al-Thunayan played 95 international matches and scored 33 goals for the Saudi Arabian national team. At the age of 34 he was selected for his only Football World Cup, and appeared in two games, scoring from the penalty spot in the 2-2 draw with South Africa. He helped the Saudi national team to win the Asian nations cup twice. The first one was in 1988 in Doha, Qatar, when he did his best performance. The second one was in 1996 in U.A.E. Al Thunayan did a brilliant job in the quarter final against China. the Saudi team was trailing 0-2, until Al Thunayan came in from the bench to score the first goal and the third goal in a game that ended 4-3 for theSaudi team. after coming back from the world cup 1998, he helped the Saudi team to capture the gold in the Arab cup in Doha, Qatar. he scored the equalizer against Kuwait in the simi-final from a free kick. the made to assists in the final against Qatar which ended 3-1.