DUBAI: Football fans around the world were treated to a sight they did not expect at the recent FIFA Club World Cup — but one with which supporters in Ƶ and Asia are very familiar: Al-Hilal going toe-to-toe with the best and, often, coming out on top.
Watching proudly from the stands of stadiums across the US was Al-Hilal CEO Esteve Calzada. The Spaniard joined the Riyadh giants one and half years ago and has since been, in his own words, on an “exciting journey.”
Calzada told Arab News: “I joined as part of the new era in Saudi football. With the Public Investment Fund leading —having the majority of the club, and supporting our chairman Fahad bin Saad bin Nafel — we’ve got something which is very important in football, which is stability. That is really needed so that players perform, and we can make plans for the future. And this is why I’m here — alongside other people that have come. Some of us came from abroad, some others were already here, and they are local. It is absolutely essential for all of us to be successful. It’s not only the foreigners coming with new ideas, just like it’s not only the locals doing things always in the same way, but the combination of the two is what can take you to the sweet spot and to be successful.”
Success is something Al-Hilal’s owners, management and players — not to mention their passionate fans — demand. The recent FIFA Club World Cup campaign in the US shows the potential of the club to succeed at the highest level when Calzada’s “sweet spot” is hit.
“We don’t (often) have the opportunity to play the biggest clubs in the world, which is what this tournament offered us,” he said. “And with the results we got, we got the opportunity to show that we have a competitive team, that we have big ambitions and it’s been amazing in all fronts — the most important being on the pitch, but then also off the pitch. It’s our job now to make sure we stay in the spotlight, with the challenge that we will not play Real Madrid or Manchester City every other week.”
It was not Al-Hilal’s first participation in one of the incarnations of this competition, having previously competed in 2019, 2021 and 2022, when they reached the final in Rabat only to lose to Real Madrid. Calzada says the tournament in the US brought with it many positives and some logistical challenges.
“I think the experience was good,” he said. “Obviously, the weather cannot be changed. In our case, coming from the Middle East, we are used to the heat, but it’s true that it was a bit humid and it was a bit complicated, especially depending on the kick-off times. But, obviously, for us, we can only say positive things about this tournament, because it’s been historical for us and time will put it in perspective.”
Al-Hilal ultimately exited the tournament at the quarter-final stage after a 2-1 loss to Brazilian club Fluminense, but they impressed the watching world with their exciting brand of football. New coach Simon Inzaghi, in charge for just a few weeks, rightly received widespread acclaim.
“We’re very proud that our shareholders, led by our chairman and the PIF, were determined that this was the coach that we wanted, and then we were lucky to get him, and to get him in time for the tournament, with little time to train,” said Calzada. “He has already made an impact, obviously, on the pitch, but also in terms of the credibility of the project. It shows our ambition.”
Inzaghi’s presence, Calzada believes, will further change global perceptions of the club.
“For players that might have been doubting whether to join us or not, having him as a coach is a great attraction, especially when they have seen the way we play,” he said. “If you listen to the likes of Ruben Neves, or Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, talking about the strength of the league, or saying their GPS after training shows more kilometers than when they were back in Europe, all of that together delivers a positive message. As for the coach, we are extremely happy to have him with us, and we’re very excited about what’s ahead.”
Al-Hilal drew with Real Madrid and beat Manchester City, with pundits and fans surprised by how quickly Inzahghi had managed to implement his style of play.
“I think I can say — and everyone will agree — that the way we played was very attractive. It’s not just parking the bus and making sure Real Madrid doesn’t score and come out with a draw. In certain moments of the game, we played beautiful football with players combining on the ball, starting the game from the back, instead of with long balls, and that certainly caught the attention of the world and gave us a very good result, which actually could have been even better,” Calzada said. “We think that if we had won the game, no one would have been surprised.
“This is a very ambitious club, we are expected to win every competition, every friendly game — anything that is not winning or coming first is not a success for us, and that means that even having drawn against Real Madrid, we thought we could have won, just like even when we then went this far in the tournament, we were still hoping to make it even further,” he continued. “Even against Fluminense, we could have won.”
Al-Hilal delivered arguably the result of the tournament when they beat Manchester City 4-3 in the Round of 16 at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium. It was a match that had extra meaning for Calzada.
“It was very special, personally, just because I worked 12 years in the City Football Group, so I was basically facing my ex-colleagues, and I had to just make sure I did not celebrate too much — just like when a striker scores a goal against his former team, he tries to show some respect,” he said. “For me, it was very emotional. But having said that, of course it was amazing to share that with our colleagues and understand that — as time will, and has started to, prove — we were making history.”
While the players take a well-earned rest before returning to the business of the Saudi Pro League, Calzada’s job is to ensure every aspect of the club is run efficiently.
“We’ve got very ambitious plans for the future,” he said. “We’ve been working on a strategic plan for the club, which is about globalization, about growing.”
Engagement during the Club World Cup, Calzada pointed out, exceeded expectations.
“We collected almost half a billion video views during the (tournament),” he said. “This is only behind four clubs, which are the biggest ones: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, and Bayern Munich. (We were) number one on video views on Twitter, number four on TikTok — a very good performance. And we gained 1 million followers on social media during the tournament. We are now at 45 million followers across social media platforms, which is a remarkable number.
“And, also interesting to mention, the shirt that was developed specifically for the tournament alongside our partner Puma, is the most successful shirt ever in terms of the days that it was on the market,” Calzada continued. “And we just launched the new shirt for the new season. That was also a very successful initiative in terms of sales, as well as all the activities that we’ve been doing around the Club World Cup. And these numbers come with the hard work of a lot of people that have been working on very special content.”
Calzada noted that, during the tournament, all the club’s content-creation teams relocated to the US to be close to the team and “to produce the best content possible.” Some of that included fan activations at each of the stadiums the club played at, ensuring their supporters — the “Hilalis” — were captured enjoying the action and celebrating the successes.
“We just launched our new website, and we’ve got a number of initiatives in different fields, including infrastructure. We’ve got very ambitious plans,” Calzada said. “Ultimately, our job is to manage the club in the most sustainable way possible, to generate as much revenue as possible so that we can reinvest in having the best players so that we can compete to win trophies.”
Last week’s announcement of the signing of French international defender Theo Hernandez from Milan showed the Hilal content team at their creative best, with many slick videos and photos that went viral.
“Certainly, we identified content as one of the biggest opportunities for growth, to win new funds, to bring new sponsors in so that we can also give them returns. That only works with the combination of local knowledge and international expertise,” he said. “We hope we can continue being successful. The pieces that we’re doing got a lot of engagement in a situation that is very challenging because we talk to different types of audiences. And sometimes what resonates with global audiences is not liked by our local fans, because the way we communicate locally is: (We are) clearly the big leaders. We lead the way. This is part of our positioning. The others follow us.” But that approach needs to be tweaked when engaging with global audiences, he added.
“Ultimately, it is down to producing high quality content, which is what we’re trying to do,” he continued. “Obviously, it takes time, and it’s a challenge, because sometimes you’ve got to do sponsored content to generate revenue. Sometimes our fans have difficulty understanding that.”
Calzada is proud of his good relationship with Al-Hilal supporters, and at the Club World Cub was seen mixing with many of them at several activations. No doubt the fact that he has been learning Arabic and can now more than hold his own in conversation helps endear him to the locals. He is keen that those fans continue to support the club’s creative direction on social media.
“You’ve got to do content that maybe here is not so well understood, but we know for a fact that it will work elsewhere because it’s been working with all the other bigger clubs,” he said. “This is certainly a learning curve, but we’re starting to see the results. Having that recognition, which is also coming from the numbers that we’re seeing, gives me and my team the energy to keep on working.”
As holders of a record number of Saudi league titles, with 19, and AFC Champions League wins, with four, Al-Hilal are often called the Real Madrid of Asia. The Club World Cup has showcased them to the rest of the world.
Calzada welcomes the club’s growing international popularity, but maintains that there is work still to be done.
“We’re very popular in Brazil, for obvious reasons,” he said, alluding to the club’s several Brazilian players. “And in some other countries as well, like the UK, because we have Ruben (Neves) and (Aleksandar) Mitrovic that played there. So, we are in transition — or we want to transition — into being a global club. It would be a bit pretentious to say that we are already there. We are on that journey. But certainly, something that I’ve learned over the last one and a half years is the ambition of this club. I am also a very ambitious person. That’s why I left Manchester City, where I had been in a winning position for 12 years.
“I could only come to a place where we would still be expected to win,” Calzada concluded. “And I’m glad that I got the opportunity to do so here with the backing of our shareholders and our board.”
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