ALKHOBAR
\nFor Anan Al-Mahanna, the distance between years of hard work and a place in Saudi Arabia\u2019s Women\u2019s Premier League once came down to a single match.
\nThe Saudi footballer had founded Al-Taqadom\u2019s women\u2019s team in the summer of 2023 and only months later had taken the club to the semifinals of the inaugural season of the Saudi Women\u2019s First Division. The Al-Qassim province club was within one victory of promotion to Premier League. They lost 1-0 to Al-Taraji.
\n\u201cWe were a team with spirit and love for each other, and there were a lot of emotions that brought us together,\u201d Al-Mahanna, 31, told Arab News. \u201cWe reached the semifinal together through our team spirit, even though we faced many psychological and financial difficulties. We didn\u2019t give up.
\nWe were one step away from the dream of reaching the Premier League, but unfortunately we weren\u2019t successful.\u201d The defeat affected her deeply. After everything the players had invested in the season, watching another team earn promotion was difficult to accept.
\n\u201cIt was a hard feeling after we had worked and fought, only to lose in the end,\u201d she said. \u201cIt affected me so much that I traveled outside Saudi Arabia for four months to get over it.\u201d But the defeat did not stall her career. She eventually tasted Premier League action with Eastern Flames, the club she now plays for.
\n\u201cAll the players, myself included, continued. We didn\u2019t give up, and we all went on to play in the Premier League.\u201d Al-Mahanna\u2019s relationship with football began long before a professional women\u2019s league existed in Saudi Arabia.
\nShe spent 16 years of her childhood in Egypt, where her father worked at the Saudi Embassy in Cairo. It was there that she began playing, encouraged by her older brother, Salman. \u201cMy older brother, Salman, played a big role,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was the one who taught me and gave me the ambition and passion to take football professionally, compete and challenge myself.\u201d
\nWhen she returned to Saudi Arabia, opportunities for female footballers were limited. Over the years that followed, Al-Mahanna became involved not only as a player, but also in building teams herself. In 2022, she founded Team SENS \u2014 the official women\u2019s football team of the Saudi Environment Association \u2014 in Jeddah and competed with them in the Global Goals World Cup. The side finished first and was also named Crowd Champion.
\nThe result qualified SENS for the competition\u2019s finals in the Eastern Province. Al-Mahanna later founded Al-Taqadom\u2019s women\u2019s team and another team, Footy. She also spent three years with White Lion, where she served as captain, before the team\u2019s later association with NEOM.
\nHer football career initially developed alongside a full-time job. Before becoming a professional player, Al-Mahanna spent seven years working for car dealership Changan Al-Majdouie while continuing to play football in the evenings.
\n\u201cI would work in the morning and play football at night as an amateur,\u201d she said. \u201cI was also participating in the First Division.\u201d Professional football eventually forced her to choose between the two.
\n\u201cWhen I became a professional, I resigned from my job because professionalism required me to be completely dedicated so I could focus on my training and rest.\u201d That decision later took her away from her family in Jeddah.
\nAl-Mahanna moved to the Eastern Province, where she has spent two years playing professionally for Shulat Al-Sharqiya, or Eastern Flames, in the Women\u2019s Premier League. She describes that period as the most difficult of her career.
\n\u201cThe distance from my family was a little difficult, and I faced many situations where I felt I was treated unfairly in football, administratively, financially and psychologically,\u201d she said. \u201cI was alone through all of these stages.\u201d
\nOne teammate, Fidaa Ashour, became particularly important during that period. \u201cGod blessed me with a friend on the team who stood beside me through all of these stages,\u201d Al-Mahanna said.
\nShe also credits her family, close friends and several coaches in Jeddah as the main sources of support throughout her career. Al-Mahanna\u2019s years in football have coincided with a rapid expansion of opportunities for Saudi women in sport, a difference she sees particularly clearly for younger players.
\n\u201cOpportunities are now available to everyone, and there are many good opportunities,\u201d she said. \u201cAll girls should take advantage of them because they shouldn\u2019t be missed, especially juniors and younger girls. They have a strong future in sport.\u201d
\nFor Al-Mahanna, however, her career has also been shaped by the opportunities that did not work out \u2014 particularly the promotion she and her Al-Taqadom teammates came so close to securing. Years later, she remembers both the loss and what happened afterward. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ALKHOBAR For Anan Al-Mahanna, the distance between years of hard work and a place in Saudi Arabia\u2019s Women\u2019s Premier League once came down to a single match. The Saudi footballer had founded Al-Taqadom\u2019s women\u2019s team in the summer of 2023 and only months later had taken the club to the semifinals of the inaugural season […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-562930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n