Bento looks to take UAE’s recent form into 26th Arabian Gulf Cup in Kuwait

RIYADH: As Majd Al-Otaibi listened intently to the question being asked, tears began to well up in her eyes. As she started to answer, her voice broke a little.

The Al-Hilal star, who turned 18 recently, was answering a question about what it means to play for her country’s football team, to wear the legendary green kit and hear the national anthem.

She first had the honor as a 16-year-old and has established herself as one of the Kingdom’s most promising talents, ready to break down barriers and smash glass ceilings.

“Honestly, there’s tears in my eyes right now when you’re explaining this,” the eloquent Al-Otaibi told Arab News.

“I love Saudi very much, so to wear the kit for me, that’s all I need. Like, even if I’m sitting on the bench, even if I’m in the stands, it’s enough for me.”

Al-Otaibi was born into football. Her father, Fahad, played for Al-Tai in the early 2000s. And while she was too young to remember much of his career, her older sister, Najd, who plays for Al-Riyadh, was once the team’s mascot and walked onto the field holding her father’s hand.

While she lacks the memories, he is her biggest idol, and she speaks with reverence about him. “He’s my biggest inspiration,” she proclaimed proudly.

“When I first started football, he was my first coach. So even though I didn’t know anything about football, he was always there with me, he was my first coach, and obviously this made him my first inspiration, and I saw him as an amazing player.

“Every time he tried to teach me something or show me something, I would forget what he was teaching me, and I would just look at him and I’d be like ‘wow.’”

The love she feels for her father is returned in equal measure.

“The word ‘proud’ doesn’t adequately express how I feel about Majd,” Fahad was recorded as saying in a 2023 video which was produced for Saudi Arabia’s aborted bid for the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup.

“The Saudi league will not be the end of our ambitions, I think she will rise to the heights of international professionalism. I have faith in her. She will succeed in ways that I was incapable of.”

With an older sister and younger brother, the Al-Otaibi family bonds are strong, but she has a special place in her heart for her father. “(He) is my best friend through football and through life in general. He’s always with me no matter what,” she said.

“I think he’s a big part of why I’m where I am today, and no matter what happens, he’s always supporting me. He’s at every single game, if he can, even the ones outside of Saudi with the under-20 national team. He’s always with me.”

That included flying all the way from Saudi Arabia to Florida during her year-long residence at the famed IMG Academy, an opportunity that arose through the increased investment in the women’s game by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation.

It was not her first experience Stateside, however, having lived in Cedar City, Utah, for almost seven years as her parents continued their studies in the US and were able to expose their children to a different culture.

“I have a whole different view of life,” she explained. “When I went to the US, I didn’t know what was my culture, or what was the American culture, or what culture I’m supposed to have, because I went at an age where I’m still learning these things.

“So when I went there, I learned their culture. I learned everything. I was enjoying my life. It was amazing. Alhamdulillah. But when you come back to Saudi and you experience the Saudi culture, and you’ve experienced the American culture, and here you see the difference, and I’m 100 percent with the Saudi culture.”

It was in America she first started playing football, for a team coached by her father. It was called the Minions, with a bright yellow kit resembling the characters from the iconic film franchise.

When her family returned home in 2019, she was 12 and uncertain about her football career. “When I first came back to Saudi, I had no idea there was women’s football,” she said.

“I had no idea. I had in my mind that I was going to come back and I was done with football, because I didn’t (know). There was nothing online, there was no social media, there was nothing to tell me if it was there.”

Her return coincided with the boom in women’s football but also the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is a good story,” she joked.

“When I first came back, there was this one team that I did tryouts for. I did one training (and) the next day coronavirus (struck), and everything was shut down. I never got to play for them.”

But it opened her eyes to what was possible, and only a few short years later she was stepping out proudly wearing the national team kit. Her rapid ascension — joining Al-Hilal in 2023 via Al-Yamamah — mirrors that of women’s football in the Kingdom overall.

So what about the future?

She dreams of being a trailblazer and playing professionally outside of Saudi Arabia. “I think this should be a goal for every young player,” she explained.

“Because to develop outside and to come back, it’s not only developing you as a player, but it’s developing your country, and it’s inspiring younger players to do this as well.

“You have a lot of examples from the men’s senior national team — Faisal Al-Ghamdi, Saud Abdulhamid — they’re representing their country very well outside, so I think this should be our inspiration, and it should be what we want.

“We would want to do it for our country as well, to represent them outside (Saudi Arabia); Europe or the US league, wherever it is, but to develop for us and for our country, I think that’s my biggest aspiration as well.”

She draws inspiration from the country hosting the 2034 FIFA World Cup. And she hopes Saudi Arabia will host a major women’s tournament, perhaps the AFC Women’s Asian Cup or even the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

“I think we will have the chance to host (the Women’s Asian Cup) one day, Inshallah, or any big tournament, World Cup, or whatever it is,” she said excitedly.

“I think Saudi is ready for this, and we need to open up the world to women’s football in Saudi.”