The talent development pathway in Saudi Arabia in 2023 organized various programs and festivals aimed at discovering young talents, helping to refine and develop them through professional programs overseen by national coaches holding accredited coaching certificates. This initiative serves as an important contributor to the national teams and is one of the pillars of the Saudi Football Transformation Strategy launched in September 2021.
Cities like Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dammam hosted the FIFA Schools Program, part of eight stages to identify talent, in collaboration with FIFA. A total of 355 boys and 321 girls, along with 139 male teachers and 127 female teachers participated, with the aim of training teachers across regions to discover talent aged 6 to 16 years. The program identified 62 talents who were officially registered in regional training centers.
Talent discovery stations were set up in Al-Dhahriah and Al-Ahsa, as part of ten cities that saw the participation of 578 talents and 27 coaches, focusing on ages 10 to 14 years. Fifty-eight talents were recommended for official registration in training centers.
Additionally, the cities of Al-Qassim, Jazan, Al-Ahsa, Arar, Hail, Tabuk, and Hafr Al-Batin held talent discovery festivals out of a planned twelve cities, with 1,235 boys and 587 girls participating, targeting ages 6-9 for boys and 9-12 for girls. These events were supervised by 104 male coaches and 50 female coaches, resulting in 135 boys and 37 girls passing to experience training in regional centers.
