Al Nassr Club is a Riyadh sports club and one of the founding names of the Saudi Pro League. It was the first Saudi and Asian club to play in the FIFA Club World Cup, it fields teams in sixteen sports and since 2023 it has been owned by the Public Investment Fund under the Kingdom’s club privatization project.
How Al Nassr Club started
The club was founded on October 24, 1955 by Zaid and Hussein, sons of Mutlaq Al-Jabaa, together with friends from their neighborhood. They chose the name Nassr because it carries the sense of victory. Yellow was picked for the desert and blue for the waters around the Arabian Peninsula, and both colors still define the kit.
The 2025 logo update
On May 19, 2025, the club unveiled a new circular logo for its seventieth anniversary. A map of the Arabian Peninsula sits at the center with the word Nassr across it, the club name in English above and the founding date and the city of Riyadh in English below. The traditional yellow and blue were kept.
Sports and membership
Al Nassr registers 979 players across sixteen sports: football, basketball, cycling, volleyball, tennis, table tennis, taekwondo, karate, judo, swimming, diving, athletics, weightlifting, badminton, futsal and archery. Eight of those are women’s sports with 103 registered players. Nineteen departments and 168 staff run the operation.
That breadth is common among the country’s larger clubs, as our profiles of Al Ittihad Club and Al Ahli Club show.
Al Nassr Club under PIF ownership
On June 5, 2023, the Ministry of Sport announced that Al Nassr would become a company owned by the Public Investment Fund, with an investment fund established for it and the club’s value deposited in exchange for the ownership transfer. The PIF holds 75 percent, and a non-profit organization holds the remaining 25 percent. The move sits inside the investment and privatization project launched by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and its stated aim is sustainable returns for the club company.
The same privatization wave reshaped other clubs, including Al Qadsiah in the Saudi Pro League and NEOM Sport Club. Season fixtures and standings are published by the Saudi Pro League.
Notable players
| Player | Position | Nationality |
|---|---|---|
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Forward | Portugal |
| Sadio Mane | Forward | Senegal |
| Hristo Stoichkov | Midfielder | Bulgaria |
| Denilson | Midfielder | Brazil |
| Marcelo Brozovic | Midfielder | Croatia |
| Otavio Monteiro | Midfielder | Portugal |
| Majed Abdullah | Forward | Saudi Arabia |
| Mohaisen Al-Jam’an | Forward | Saudi Arabia |
| Fahd Al-Heraifi | Midfielder | Saudi Arabia |
| Mohammad Al-Sahlawi | Forward | Saudi Arabia |
Women’s team success
Al Nassr became the first Saudi club to win the Women’s Premier League Cup, taking the first edition in the 2022-2023 season with a 3-2 win over Al Yamamah Club. The team retained the title in 2023-2024, beating Al Hilal Club 4-2.
Continental record
The club’s appearance at the FIFA Club World Cup in Brazil in 2000 remains its landmark result, in a group with Real Madrid CF, Raja CA and Sport Club Corinthians Paulista. Fuad Anwar, Fahad Al-Harifi, Muhaisen Al-Jumaan, Mohammed Al-Khojali, Ibrahim Al-Shuwaie, Fahad Al-Mehalel, Fahad Al-Ghesheyan, Ahmed Bahja and Musa Sayb were among the squad members from that campaign.
Key takeaways
- Founded October 24, 1955 in Riyadh by the Al-Jabaa brothers and their friends
- PIF took a 75 percent stake in the club company in June 2023
- 979 registered players across sixteen sports, including eight women’s sports
- First Saudi and Asian club at the FIFA Club World Cup, Brazil 2000
Investment in Saudi football keeps accelerating, and the structures behind it are set out in our look at Surj Sports Investment.
