Moroccan Abdel Razzaq Hamdallah, striker of Al Ittihad Jeddah, enters a list of players who have faced their previous clubs on their stadiums for the first time since their departure.
The Moroccan striker will advance the western team’s lineup once morest Al-Nasr at the top of the fifth round of the Saudi League, as the match will be the first at the stadium of his former team, “Mrsoul Park” since his move in the winter of last year, and the match will be his second once morest Al-Nasr following the return of the two teams last season.
Hamdallah was the most prominent star of Al-Nasr club since his move in 2018 until his departure to Jidda in 2021. He was crowned in his period in the Saudi League Championship and the Super Cup twice, and he also achieved the championship’s top scorer award in two seasons, as he finished the first with 34 goals and the highest in the history of the competition, while he scored in the second 29.
The Moroccan striker was preceded by a number of football stars who moved to competing clubs from the local championship, and their first participations on the stadiums of their previous clubs witnessed different results.
Johan Cruyff, the late Dutch legend, leads the group of players who moved to competing clubs. After winning all possible tournaments with the Ajax logo, the metropolitan team refused to extend his contract with him to move to Feyenoord, one of the big three, for one year, in which he brought the team to the league podium for the first time following an absence of 10 years, but a legend match The first football on the Ajax stadium witnessed a loss 8-2. He did not have a share in the two goals.
The year 2000 witnessed the most famous story of a player’s transfer between two rivals, following the Portuguese Leos Figo wore the Real Madrid shirt immediately following 5 years in which he wore the Barcelona color. The result of Figo’s first participation in the “Camp Nou” was not better than the one suffered by Cruyff, as he came out with a two-goal loss without a response and the disapproval of 100,000 Catalan fans throughout the minutes of the match.
Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic was known for his many transfers between clubs, but his departure to Inter Milan following Juventus was relegated cast a shadow on his career. In the first match of the Swedish international striker in Turin in November of 2007, the latter came out with a 1-1 draw, but he did not make a mark in the meeting.
Argentine Carlos Tevez started his career in the English stadiums with a West Ham shirt before wearing the Manchester United logo on loan, and despite his brilliance, his contract was sold to the blue side of the city of Manchester.
Tevez spared no effort in his first match once morest United at Old Trafford, as he was able, in front of nearly 77,000 spectators, to make two out of 3 goals that did not satisfy Manchester City, who lost at the time by four goals.
After staying at Arsenal for 8 years, Dutchman Robin van Persie chose to play for Manchester United, which was frowned upon by the supporters of the “gunners”.
Van Persie’s first match at the Emirates Stadium was known as an opponent who scored his team’s only goal, and then the match ended with a goal for the same.
The transfer of Argentine Gonzalo Higuain is one of the deals made between competing clubs. In his last seasons with Napoli, the international striker scored 36 goals to offer Juventus 90 million euros for his services, which happened in the summer of 2016, but the striker’s first match at the stadium of his former team did not witness his mark following it ended. The meeting with a goal like him without registering it or making it.
