Al Jandal

Al-Jandal are back in the Saudi First Division after last making the step up in 2023, and the shock of that season lingers into how the club is now judged: staying among the second tier rather than a swift return to the regional football that filled its early decades. The name comes from Dumat al-Jandal, though home fixtures are played up the road in Sakakah, at the Al-Orobah Club Stadium, a ground that holds around 7,000 and puts them a short drive from Al-Orobah FC, whose meetings with Al-Jandal are known locally as the Derby of Al-Jouf.

Founded in 1976, the club spent most of its history outside the country's upper tiers before winning promotion to the Saudi Second Division in 2018 through the playoffs, then repeating the trick in 2023 with a 2-1 win over Bisha SC in the final. Neither step produced a trophy — Al-Jandal have never taken a major title — but the second promotion is the one supporters point to, since it put a club from Al-Jawf Province into competition it had not reached before.

The clearest mark of how far that promotion carried them came in the 2024-25 King's Cup, when Al-Jandal, known to their own as Mard Al-Jawf, "the Giant of Jawf," beat Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli 2-1 in the Round of 32 before Al-Ittihad ended the run in the next stage.

Aniekpeno Udoh is the name attached to the 2023 promotion itself, having scored 23 goals that season to drag the club up. Fewer are remembered for what came after him: Ziyad Al-Afar, who came through the club's own academy as a player and later returned to take charge as head coach.