In the world of football, a decisive kick may change the path of a player, and this is precisely what happened with Mukhtar Ali, who made his mark in the 27th Gulf Cup tournament, after he waited throughout the group stage without getting a single minute of play, before appearing in the semi-final against Qatar, and the scene ended with him in front of the ball that carried the Saudi team’s ticket to the final match.
Mukhtar was not among the main list that began the “Green” preparations for the tournament. Greek coach Georgios Donis summoned him on September 20, after Musab Al-Jawir was excluded for disciplinary reasons, so the Al-Ittihad player joined the camp a few days before the start of the competitions.
Despite the late call-up, Mukhtar continued to wait for his chance, and the match against Kuwait passed, which Saudi Arabia won 1-0, then Oman, which ended with a 3-0 Saudi victory, and finally Iraq, which “Al-Akhdar” won 2-0, without the midfielder participating for any minute.
Saudi Arabia finished the group stage with three victories, while Mukhtar’s tally in the tournament remained at “zero minutes of participation,” but the semi-finals wrote a completely different scenario for him. Against Qatar, Mukhtar started the match again on the bench, in a confrontation that extended after a goalless draw in regular time into extra time, before reaching the most stressful moment in knockout matches, which is “penalty kicks.” There, Mukhtar moved from a hidden player in the group stage to one of the heroes of the semi-final night, after he stepped forward to take the last Saudi kick and put the ball into the net, giving “Al-Akhdar” the ticket to qualify for the “Gulf 27” final.
The irony is that the 28-year-old was not accustomed to having his name associated with goals with the national team. Before the tournament, he had 14 international matches with the senior Saudi national team without scoring any goals, and he participated in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, the 2023 Asian Cup, and the 2025 Gold Cup, in addition to friendly matches. But Mukhtar's story itself has a different path than many Saudi players. He began his football training in England at the Chelsea Academy, then moved to the Dutch club Vitesse, where he won the Dutch Cup in 2017, before returning to Saudi Arabia via Al-Nassr in 2019. After stops with Al-Taei, Al-Fateh, and Al-Ittifaq, he moved to Al-Ittihad in the summer of 2026, to begin a new chapter of his career in Jeddah.
It was also from Jeddah that one of his most special international moments came; Mukhtar, who arrived at the national team camp as a substitute before the tournament, and did not play a single minute during the first three matches, found himself a few days later facing the responsibility of executing an unerring kick. Between “zero minutes” in the group stage and the last kick in the semi-finals, Mukhtar Ali’s position in the story “Gulf 27” changed.
The Saudi national team not only kept a clean sheet in the Gulf Cup (Gulf Cup 27) thanks to the solidity of its defensive system, but also because it found additional strength in its stands that contributed to giving it a clear advantage on the field, after the Saudi fans turned into an influential element in the national team’s journey towards the final match.
The Saudi team showed remarkable defensive cohesion during the tournament, becoming the only team that did not concede a single goal, an indicator that reflects the teamwork in the back line, starting with the goalkeeper, all the way to the defense players and the midfield, in a system that did not leave the task to the goalkeeper alone.
And against Qatar, the crowd attendance was one of the most prominent scenes of the match, after the number of fans in the stands reached 51,342, giving the Saudi team great support throughout the minutes of the match.
The impact of the stands was not limited to the visual scene or the numerical presence, as it was reflected in the statements of the Qatari side after the match.
Spaniard Julian Lopetegui, coach of the Qatari national team, pointed out during the press conference the strength of the crowd’s presence and its impact on the match, saying: We feel sad that we did not play the final. We faced a very strong crowd that was an influential factor, and they had the advantage of the crowd. We also faced a strong team, the home side, which benefited from this factor.
Lopetegui's speech reveals another side of the match's equation, as the confrontation was not only between two teams inside the green rectangle, but also extended to the stands, which played a role in giving the Saudi team an additional boost, especially with the fans' continuous interaction with the course of the match.
After the match, the Saudi national team players were keen to thank the fans, stressing that their support constituted an important motivation for the team during its journey in the tournament. Their praise of the audience came as an extension of the presence and support shown in the stands, confirming that “the Green” confirmed that the path to the final was not based on defensive organization alone.
