Seventy-one years ago, on 24 October 1955, a group of young men from a Riyadh neighbourhood set up a team they named "victory". Al-Nassr may have become widely known in Greece with the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, but its story goes back much further, and it has always had two colours at its heart: yellow and blue.

The Al-Jabaa brothers and the first step

The club was founded by the brothers Zaid and Hussein Al-Jabaa, sons of Mutlaq Al-Jabaa, together with friends from their neighbourhood. The name means "victory" in Arabic, and according to the sources it was the first club to adopt it. In the early years the team was run as an amateur side and trained on an old pitch. Official registration with the sports authorities came in 1960, and in 1963 the team was promoted to the first division. Prince Abdul Rahman bin Saud became president, and supporters regard him as the club's "godfather".

Desert and sea: the colours

Al-Nassr's colours have a geographical explanation. The yellow refers to the desert sands of the Arabian Peninsula and the blue to the waters around it: the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Gulf. The home shirt is usually yellow and the away shirt mainly blue. That is the origin of the nickname Al-Asfar Al-Kabir, "the Big Yellow", as well as Nadi Al-Shams, "the Sun Club". Another, Faris Najd, means "the Knight of Najd", the central region in which Riyadh lies.

Majed Abdullah, the scorer of an era

The first league title came in 1974-75, and more followed over the next decades, including in the 1990s. The face of that era was Majed Abdullah, the club's all-time top scorer with 260 goals. Abdullah retired on 12 April 1998, right after winning the Asian Cup Winners' Cup against South Korea's Suwon Samsung Bluewings in front of around 70,000 spectators in Riyadh. The same year the team also won the Asian Super Cup.

Brazil 2000: why they are called "Al-Alami"

In 2000 Al-Nassr took part in the first FIFA Club World Championship in Brazil, as the first Asian club to play in the competition. Coached by the Serbian Milan Živadinović, they were drawn with Real Madrid, Raja Casablanca and Corinthians, finished sixth and won the Fair Play award. Ever since, fans have called them Al-Alami, "the Global One". League titles in 2014, 2015 and 2019 showed the team remained competitive in the new era.

From a crowned map to the 70th-anniversary crest

For years the centre of Al-Nassr's crest has been a map of the Arabian Peninsula in yellow and blue. For the club's 70th anniversary, on 19 May 2025, a new circular crest was unveiled. The crown that sat at the top was removed, the English name became simply "Nassr", and the word Riyadh and the founding year, 1955, were added at the bottom. Shirt manufacturers changed often: Hummel, Nike, Lotto, New Balance, and since 2024 adidas.

The Ronaldo era

On 30 December 2022 Al-Nassr announced the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, a transfer that turned the eyes of the whole world to Riyadh. In June 2023 Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund took control of the club. In August of that year the team won the Arab Club Champions Cup, with the Portuguese scoring twice in a 2-1 win over Al-Hilal, the club's great city rival. In the 2023-24 season Ronaldo scored 35 league goals, beating Abderrazak Hamdallah's record of 34.

Happy birthday, Al-Nassr. From an old neighbourhood pitch to the big stadiums of Riyadh, yellow and blue keep bringing generations of supporters together.

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Photo: Al-Awwal Park – Alina.chiorean, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.