Saudi Scholarship Program for Developing Football Talent 'Future Falcons'

The Saudi Scholarship Program for Developing Football Talent 'Future Falcons' (SSDFT) is a program overseen by the Ministry of Sport, represented by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation. The program targets talented football players, enrolling them to provide technical, physical, and psychological training and preparation. The goal is to equip those players before offering them opportunities to be transferred on loan or permanently to European clubs or to return to the Saudi Professional League, where they can share the experience and skills gained during the program.

The General Sports Authority (now the Ministry of Sport) launched SSDFT on June 30, 2019. The program initially targeted twenty-one players as the first step in a broader initiative targeting forty talented players. According to the project plan, the selected players participated in forty matches per season against teams of various levels in Spain and other European countries. The ministry chose players born in 1999-2000 to be the core group for this program.

The program is designed to meet the comprehensive needs required to develop a professional football player at a level comparable to their peers around the world. The program provides a fully integrated technical, physical, and nutritional plan under the supervision of a team of international experts and specialists who have previously managed successful football academies. Additionally, the program collaborates with player marketing companies to assist participants in joining clubs. The program also includes language education and covers the players' travel, transportation, healthcare, and legal documentation expenses. Players spend their first year at the academy to acclimate to the European environment and training methods used by clubs on the continent. Through competitions held throughout the year, players will engage with high-level players. The academy also offers European clubs the opportunity to scout Saudi players and invite them for technical trials, paving the way for potential recruitment.

In 2023, the Saudi Arabian Football Federation announced the launch of the fifth season of SSDFT following the transfer of supervision responsibilities to the federation. The program continues to operate in Salou, Spain, where players undergo daily training sessions, participate in friendly matches, and compete in the International Champions Cup, which includes several European clubs. For this season, the federation decided to enroll players born in 2005 to enhance their skills and develop their technical and physical abilities, as well as to improve various personal skills.

In its fifth year, forty-seven players out of ninety, representing thirty-five local teams, joined the program during a training camp held in Jeddah. The talented players were selected through eighteen training sessions and several technical drills, with all players undergoing technical and physical performance measurements before participating in the technical assessments.

In 2022, the SSDFT announced that seventeen players had signed professional contracts simultaneously with eleven European clubs. The wave of signings began with Firas al-Ghamdi joining Nàstic de Tarragona in Spain, Aseel Abed signing with Melilla in Spain, and Aseel al-Harbi joining Portimonense in Portugal. Osama al-Mubeirek signed with Legia Warsaw in Poland, while Mohammed al-Qahtani and Mishari al-Mushairi joined Olympiacos in Greece. Ryan Idris signed with Westerlo in Belgium, and the contracts continued with Basel al-Hudhayf and al-Muayyad Mani joining Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia. Inter Zaprešić in Croatia signed Abdullah Mahboob and Bandar Darwish, while Slavia Prague in the Czech Republic signed Samer al-Muhaimid and Mohammed al-Rashidi. Jadran Poreč in Croatia signed Salem Barian and Abdullah al-Jaber, and the professional contracts concluded with Mohammed Arija and Ziyad al-Ghamdi joining Baník Ostrava in the Czech Republic.