Georgios Donis Names Bold Squad for Gulf 27

Georgios Donis has wasted no time stamping his authority on Saudi Arabia.

The Greek head coach named his 26-man squad for the Gulf Cup “Gulf 27” in Jeddah with a series of bold calls, headlined by the omission of national team captain Salem Al-Dawsari and Roma defender Saud Abdulhamid. Both were central figures for the Green Falcons at the recent World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Both are now on the outside looking in.

Big World Cup Names Left Out

Al-Dawsari’s absence is the headline shock. The captain has long been the face of this Saudi side, but Donis has chosen to go in a different direction for the regional showpiece on home soil.

Abdulhamid joins him among the casualties, along with six more players who featured at the World Cup but will not be involved in Jeddah: Ahmed Al-Kassar, Ali Majrashi, Ali Lajami, Ayman Yahya, Saleh Al-Shehri and Khalid Al-Ghannam. Eight World Cup players out. A clear break from the recent past.

The message is hard to miss: reputations alone will not guarantee a place under Donis.

New Blood for a Home Tournament

Those gaps have not been left empty. Donis has turned to a fresh group of eight players to reshape the squad ahead of the tournament that runs from 23 September to 6 October.

Hamed Al-Shanqiti, Mohammed Mahzari, Zakaria Hawsawi, Mohammed Al-Qahtani, Saleh Abu Al-Shamat, Abdullah Al-Salem, Rayan Hamed and Hammam Al-Hammami all receive call-ups, a wave of new faces tasked with energising a team that now looks very different from the one that went to the World Cup.

According to the Saudi national team’s account on X, the final 26-man list reads:

• Goalkeepers: Mohammed Al-Owais, Nawaf Al-Aqidi, Hamed Al-Shanqiti.
• Defenders: Abdulelah Al-Amri, Jihad Zikri, Rayan Hamed, Hassan Kadesh, Hassan Tambakti, Nawaf Boushal, Mohammed Mahzari, Mutaib Al-Harbi, Zakaria Hawsawi.
• Midfielders: Musab Al-Juwayr, Mohammed Al-Qahtani, Mohammed Kanno, Ziyad Al-Johani, Abdullah Al-Khaibari, Nasser Al-Dawsari, Alaa Haji, Sultan Mandash, Mohammed Abu Al-Shamat, Hammam Al-Hammami, Saleh Abu Al-Shamat.
• Forwards: Abdullah Al-Hamdan, Firas Al-Buraikan, Abdullah Al-Salem.

Youth, competition for places, and a coach unafraid to disrupt the hierarchy – the squad list carries all three.

Group of Demands, Not Death

Saudi Arabia will not have long to settle. They open their Gulf 27 campaign on 23 September against Kuwait at Al-Inma Stadium in King Abdullah Sports City. Oman arrive three days later on 26 September, with Iraq waiting on the 29th to close out the group stage.

The draw placed the hosts in Group One with Kuwait, Oman and Iraq – a section with history, rivalry and very little margin for error. Group Two features Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain and Yemen.

For Donis, this is more than a regional tournament. It is his first real test in front of a home crowd, with a reshaped squad and some of the country’s biggest names watching from home. The question now is simple: will this new-look Saudi Arabia justify those ruthless decisions when the Gulf Cup kicks off in Jeddah?