In Group B of the Round of 12, the Saudi team unexpectedly became a "dark horse" team. Although the Saudi team was considered to have good strength before the start of the tournament, most people believe that their strength is still behind Japan and Australia. Saudi Arabia, which did not expect to maintain a complete victory after 4 world wars, has now become one of the most promising teams in Group B to qualify for the World Cup.
In fact, for Saudi football, Chinese fans know very little about it, one is because Saudi Arabia is located in remote West Asia, and there are not many opportunities for the national football team to play with them; the other is because compared with iran, which is also in West Asia, the national football team does not suffer losses in the overall record of the battle with the Saudi team. In our league, Saudi foreign aid is also rare. In the 18-year history of the Chinese Super League, there has never been a Saudi player, but in the A period, there was a Saudi foreign aid, he is Amin. But what impressed Chinese fans most was not his skills, but his style of playing in China and the interesting things that happened to him.
In the 1990s, the Saudi team was at the height of its national team's history, not only reaching the round of 16 in the 1994 World Cup, but also reaching the World Cup finals in 1998. These excellent results are inseparable from one person, that is, Amin. As the captain of the Saudi men's football team, Amin participated in the two competitions as the main force. In the World Cup, Amin already has a quite "presence", in 94 Amin scored the first goal in the history of the Saudi World Cup, and in 98 he was sent off because he had been exporting dirty against Zizu in the game, causing Qizu to lose control of his emotions and retaliate.
Objectively speaking, Amin's strength was also ranked in Asia at that time, coupled with the status of Saudi football heroes, so when Amin came to China to play football in 1999, it still caused quite a stir. At that time, Amin and his Saudi teammates came to Sichuan for trial training, and although the ability he showed was not as good as that of teammate Ovilan, Amin, who was relatively good at management, was finally affirmed by the Sichuan team's senior management. The Sichuan team offered Amin a high annual salary of 2 million yuan, which was the top salary of the league at that time. With such a high annual salary, the Sichuan team hopes to make Amin feel that the team attaches importance to it, and also hopes that Amin can play well for the team. But no one expected that the Chinese club really underestimated the financial strength of saudi arabia's "local tycoons".
Since you are here, the first thing to solve is the accommodation problem. At this point, the Sichuan team generously rented a suite for Amin in the best neighborhood in Chengdu, but Amin obviously felt that the conditions of the community were too low-grade. After all, in Saudi Arabia, Amin has a luxury car and a detached villa given by the king, so Amin himself paid to move into the hotel. The problem of living was solved, and the next thing was the problem of eating. Amin also specially invited a chef from Saudi Arabia to assist in his dietary problems. Later, he also brought in a Saudi servant who took care of his own life. In addition, Amin also hired a dedicated driver and cleaning staff.
In another matter, Amin also showed "banknote ability", and when he came to China, Amin brought a check for $500,000 at any time. Of course, this is not Amin's entire wealth, it is just his pocket money. When he saw something he wanted to buy in China, Amin only waved his hand, and the servant behind him would go to the checkout, and Amin didn't even have to pay for such a thing himself.
The high-profile Amin played mediocre on the pitch, and Amin only made 9 appearances for Sichuan in total, scoring 1 goal. Maybe the thin Amin is not used to the way he plays football here, or maybe Amin doesn't want to play football with all his strength, and the end result is that Amin left after spending half a year off in China. It is said that before leaving China, Amin came to another big purchase and brought a small number of handicrafts back to China, which was of great value. For Sichuan fans, Amin is just a dispensable passerby, but for some vendors in Chengdu, Amin is like a god of wealth. Amin seems to contribute more to the local economy than his role on the pitch.
However, after returning to China, Amin quickly returned to his form, and he even participated in the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan. Many years later, Amin said that he did not come to China to make money, not even to play football, but to experience life, to experience a life that had never been experienced in Saudi Arabia.
Today, it seems that the poverty of that year limits our imagination of Saudi arabian tycoon players. When we spend a lot of money to hire people to be foreign aid, the so-called heavy money is not enough for them, and even less than the pocket money that people carry with them. Amin's poor performance in the Chinese league may have also caused Chinese footballers to abandon the idea of choosing Saudi foreign aid.