This is a record of Saudi Arabia's results at the FIFA World Cup. The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 48 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup final is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.
Saudi Arabia has qualified for a total of eight FIFA World Cup tournaments, having played in 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018, 2022, 2026, and 2034 as hosts. Their best performance was in 1994, where they reached the round of 16.
Records
| FIFA World Cup record | FIFA World Cup qualification record | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | Pld | W | D* | L | GF | GA | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | |
| 1930 | Not a FIFA member | Not a FIFA member | |||||||||||||
| 1934 | |||||||||||||||
| 1938 | |||||||||||||||
| 1950 | |||||||||||||||
| 1954 | |||||||||||||||
| 1958 | Did not enter | Did not enter | |||||||||||||
| 1962 | |||||||||||||||
| 1966 | |||||||||||||||
| 1970 | |||||||||||||||
| 1974 | |||||||||||||||
| 1978 | Did not qualify | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | ||||||||
| 1982 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 16 | |||||||||
| 1986 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||||||
| 1990 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 9 | |||||||||
| 1994 | Round of 16 | 12th | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 28 | 7 | |
| 1998 | Group stage | 28th | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 14 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 26 | 7 | |
| 2002 | Group stage | 32nd | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 14 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 47 | 8 | |
| 2006 | Group stage | 28th | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 12 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 24 | 2 | |
| 2010 | Did not qualify | 16 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 25 | 15 | ||||||||
| 2014 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 7 | |||||||||
| 2018 | Group stage | 26th | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 18 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 45 | 14 | |
| 2022 | Group stage | 25th | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 18 | 13 | 4 | 1 | 34 | 10 | |
| 2026 | Qualified | 18 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 22 | 13 | ||||||||
| 2030 | To be determined | To be determined | |||||||||||||
| 2034 | Qualified as hosts | Qualified as hosts | |||||||||||||
| Total | Round of 16 | 6/17 | 19 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 14 | 44 | 154 | 89 | 38 | 27 | 288 | 116 | |
List of matches
| World Cup | Round | Opponent | Score | Result | Venue | Saudi Arabia scorers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Group stage | Netherlands | 1–2 | L | Washington | Anwar |
| Morocco | 2–1 | W | East Rutherford | Al-Jaber, Anwar | ||
| Belgium | 1–0 | W | Washington | Al-Owairan | ||
| Round of 16 | Sweden | 1–3 | L | Dallas | Al-Ghesheyan | |
| 1998 | Group stage | Denmark | 0–1 | L | Lens | — |
| France | 0–4 | L | Saint-Denis | — | ||
| South Africa | 2–2 | D | Bordeaux | Al-Jaber, Al-Thunayan | ||
| 2002 | Group stage | Germany | 0–8 | L | Sapporo | — |
| Cameroon | 0–1 | L | Saitama | — | ||
| Republic of Ireland | 0–3 | L | Yokohama | — | ||
| 2006 | Group stage | Tunisia | 2–2 | D | Munich | Al-Qahtani, Al-Jaber |
| Ukraine | 0–4 | L | Hamburg | — | ||
| Spain | 0–1 | L | Kaiserslautern | — | ||
| 2018 | Group stage | Russia | 0–5 | L | Moscow | — |
| Uruguay | 0–1 | L | Rostov-on-Don | — | ||
| Egypt | 2–1 | W | Volgograd | Al-Faraj, S. Al-Dawsari | ||
| 2022 | Group stage | Argentina | 2–1 | W | Lusail | Al-Shehri, S. Al-Dawsari |
| Poland | 0–2 | L | Al Rayyan | — | ||
| Mexico | 1–2 | L | Lusail | S. Al-Dawsari | ||
| 2026 | Group stage | Uruguay | TBD | Miami Gardens | ||
| Spain | TBD | Atlanta | ||||
| Cape Verde | TBD | Houston |
Head-to-head record
| Opponent | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 100.00 |
| Belgium | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 100.00 |
| Cameroon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 0.00 |
| Denmark | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 0.00 |
| Egypt | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 100.00 |
| France | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | −4 | 0.00 |
| Germany | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | −8 | 0.00 |
| Mexico | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 0.00 |
| Morocco | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 100.00 |
| Netherlands | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 0.00 |
| Poland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | −2 | 0.00 |
| Republic of Ireland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | −3 | 0.00 |
| Russia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | −5 | 0.00 |
| South Africa | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | +0 | 0.00 |
| Spain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 0.00 |
| Sweden | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 0.00 |
| Tunisia | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | +0 | 0.00 |
| Ukraine | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | −4 | 0.00 |
| Uruguay | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 0.00 |
| Total | 19 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 14 | 44 | −30 | 21.05 |
Record players
| Rank | Player | Matches | World Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mohamed Al-Deayea | 10 | 1994, 1998 and 2002 |
| 2 | Sami Al-Jaber | 9 | 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006 |
| Abdullah Zubromawi | 9 | 1994, 1998 and 2002 | |
| Hussein Abdulghani | 9 | 1998, 2002 and 2006 | |
| 5 | Mohammed Al-Khilaiwi | 6 | 1994 and 1998 |
| Khaled Al-Muwallid | 6 | 1994 and 1998 | |
| Saeed Al-Owairan | 6 | 1994 and 1998 | |
| Fuad Anwar Amin | 6 | 1994 and 1998 | |
| Hamzah Saleh | 6 | 1994 and 1998 | |
| Ibrahim Al-Shahrani | 6 | 1998 and 2002 | |
| Nawaf Al-Temyat | 6 | 1998, 2002 and 2006 | |
| Redha Tukar | 6 | 2002 and 2006 | |
| Salem Al-Dawsari | 6 | 2018 and 2022 |
Top goalscorers
Sami Al-Jaber is not only the most successful Saudi striker at the FIFA World Cup to date, he also managed to score in World Cups twelve years apart (1994 and 2006). He shares this record with eight other players, among them Pelé, Diego Maradona, Miroslav Klose, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
| Rank | Player | Goals | World Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sami Al-Jaber | 3 | 1994, 1998 and 2006 |
| Salem Al-Dawsari | 3 | 2018 (1) and 2022 (2) | |
| 3 | Fuad Anwar Amin | 2 | 1994 |
| 4 | Saeed Al-Owairan | 1 | 1994 |
| Fahad Al-Ghesheyan | 1 | 1994 | |
| Yousuf Al-Thunayan | 1 | 1998 | |
| Yasser Al-Qahtani | 1 | 2006 | |
| Salman Al-Faraj | 1 | 2018 | |
| Saleh Al-Shehri | 1 | 2022 |
Squads
See also
- Asian nations at the FIFA World Cup
- Saudi Arabia at the AFC Asian Cup
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