Greece's Georgios Donis, head coach of Saudi Arabia's senior national football team, has named the squad for the Gulf Cup "Gulf 27", hosted by Jeddah from 23 September to 6 October.
There was a notable surprise in the selection. Donis left out Saudi captain Salem Al-Dawsari and Roma's Saud Abdulhamid, despite both featuring for the Green Falcons at the recent World Cup finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The pair were not alone. Ahmed Al-Kassar, Ali Majrashi, Ali Lajami, Ayman Yahya, Saleh Al-Shehri and Khalid Al-Ghannam also missed the cut, taking to eight the number of players dropped from the Gulf 27 squad after appearing at the World Cup.
To fill those gaps, the Greek coach handed call-ups to eight new faces: Hamed Al-Shanqiti, Mohammed Mahzari, Zakaria Hawsawi, Mohammed Al-Qahtani, Saleh Abu Al-Shamat, Abdullah Al-Salem, Rayan Hamed and Hammam Al-Hammami.
According to Saudi Arabia's account on X, the final squad comprised 26 players, they are:
Mohammed Al-Owais, Nawaf Al-Aqidi, Hamed Al-Shanqiti, Abdulelah Al-Amri, Jihad Zikri, Rayan Hamed, Hassan Kadesh, Hassan Tambakti, Nawaf Boushal, Mohammed Mahzari, Mutaib Al-Harbi, Zakaria Hawsawi, 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, Abdullah Al-Hamdan, Firas Al-Buraikan and Abdullah Al-Salem.
Saudi Arabia open their campaign against Kuwait on 23 September at the Al-Inma Stadium in King Abdullah Sports City. Oman follow on 26 September, before the Green Falcons round off their group-stage matches against Iraq on the 29th.
The Gulf 27 draw placed Saudi Arabia in Group One alongside Kuwait, Oman and Iraq. Group Two brings together Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain and Yemen.