On the 15th of January, at the beginning of the year 2023, the sports community was shocked by the news of the death of the star of the Saudi national team and Al-Kawkab Club. Captain Al-Khalouq Shaya Al-Nafisa, may God have mercy on him; After suffering from an incurable disease, Al-Nafisa was from the golden generation of Saudi football and made its first achievements at the Asian level in the eighties.
Captain Shaya was not an ordinary player, but rather became a symbol for generations to praise, as one of the players who engraved their names on the pages of the country in letters of gold, after they snatched the title of the most important continental championship in the first official participation of the Saudi national team in continental, after scoring a historic goal against China in 1984. .
Al-Nafisa, the 15-year-old at the time, did not realize that he would become famous in “Al-Sih” or “Al-Baqshah” (one of Al-Kharj’s neighborhoods), and he was known among the people of his region as “the artist’s swimmer.” He went in the mid-seventies of the last century to Al-Kawkab Club, accompanied by His wishes, which he rearranges from time to time, bewildered by the talent that possesses him, and the football game that appeals to him, but his decision was to register as a football player in the lists of Al-Kawkab Club.
Al-Nafisa defended the colors of the Saudi national team in 32 matches, during which he scored 10 goals, and the deceased had joined Al-Kawkab club at a young age in 1977, and represented the first team as an attacker a year later, where he spent his sporting life in Al-Kawkab, rejecting many offers he received from Several clubs, most notably Al-Hilal and Al-Nasr clubs, and Al-Nafisa retired from football at the age of 28 as a result of repeated injuries.
Those who crossed the Wall of China in the national team in 1984 left; And the imprint of his presence did not leave, being the precious metal, the precursor of a good memory.
Mohammed Al-Shahrani (Dammam) @mffaa1