DNA
ALKHOBAR: For Anan Al-Mahanna, the distance between years of hard work and a place in Saudi Arabia’s Women’s Premier League once came down to a single match. The Saudi footballer had founded Al-Taqadom’s women’s team in the summer of 2023 and only months later had taken the club to the semifinals of the inaugural season of the Saudi Women’s First Division. The Al-Qassim province club was within one victory of promotion to Premier League. They lost 1-0 to Al-Taraji.
“We were a team with spirit and love for each other, and there were a lot of emotions that brought us together,” Al-Mahanna, 31, told DNA News.
“We reached the semifinal together through our team spirit, even though we faced many psychological and financial difficulties. We didn’t give up. We were one step away from the dream of reaching the Premier League, but unfortunately we weren’t successful.”
The defeat affected her deeply. After everything the players had invested in the season, watching another team earn promotion was difficult to accept.
“It was a hard feeling after we had worked and fought, only to lose in the end,” she said. “It affected me so much that I traveled outside Saudi Arabia for four months to get over it.”
But the defeat did not stall her career. She eventually tasted Premier League action with Eastern Flames, the club she now plays for.
“All the players, myself included, continued. We didn’t give up, and we all went on to play in the Premier League.”
Al-Mahanna’s relationship with football began long before a professional women’s league existed in Saudi Arabia.
She spent 16 years of her childhood in Egypt, where her father worked at the Saudi Embassy in Cairo. It was there that she began playing, encouraged by her older brother, Salman.
“My older brother, Salman, played a big role,” she said. “He was the one who taught me and gave me the ambition and passion to take football professionally, compete and challenge myself.”
When she returned to Saudi Arabia, opportunities for female footballers were limited. Over the years that followed, Al-Mahanna became involved not only as a player, but also in building teams herself.
In 2022, she founded Team SENS — the official women’s football team of the Saudi Environment Association — in Jeddah and competed with them in the Global Goals World Cup. The side finished first and was also named Crowd Champion. The result qualified SENS for the competition’s finals in the Eastern Province.
Al-Mahanna later founded Al-Taqadom’s women’s team and another team, Footy.
She also spent three years with White Lion, where she served as captain, before the team’s later association with NEOM.
Her football career initially developed alongside a full-time job.
Before becoming a professional player, Al-Mahanna spent seven years working for car dealership Changan Al-Majdouie while continuing to play football in the evenings.
“I would work in the morning and play football at night as an amateur,” she said. “I was also participating in the First Division.”
Professional football eventually forced her to choose between the two.
“When I became a professional, I resigned from my job because professionalism required me to be completely dedicated so I could focus on my training and rest.”
That decision later took her away from her family in Jeddah.
Al-Mahanna moved to the Eastern Province, where she has spent two years playing professionally for Shulat Al-Sharqiya, or Eastern Flames, in the Women’s Premier League.
She describes that period as the most difficult of her career.
“The distance from my family was a little difficult, and I faced many situations where I felt I was treated unfairly in football, administratively, financially and psychologically,” she said. “I was alone through all of these stages.”
One teammate, Fidaa Ashour, became particularly important during that period.
“God blessed me with a friend on the team who stood beside me through all of these stages,” Al-Mahanna said.
She also credits her family, close friends and several coaches in Jeddah as the main sources of support throughout her career.
Al-Mahanna’s years in football have coincided with a rapid expansion of opportunities for Saudi women in sport, a difference she sees particularly clearly for younger players.
“Opportunities are now available to everyone, and there are many good opportunities,” she said. “All girls should take advantage of them because they shouldn’t be missed, especially juniors and younger girls. They have a strong future in sport.”
For Al-Mahanna, however, her career has also been shaped by the opportunities that did not work out — particularly the promotion she and her Al-Taqadom teammates came so close to securing.
Years later, she remembers both the loss and what happened afterward.
“No matter what happens, people shouldn’t give up on their dreams,” she said. “No matter the difficulties or the people who fight against them, I advise them not to lose hope or abandon their dreams so they don’t regret it later.”
Ultimately, the defeat that once took Al-Mahanna away from Saudi Arabia for four months did not keep her from the level she had been trying to reach.
“Every ending is a new beginning,” she said. “An arrow has to be pulled backward before it can launch toward the sky. Always keep your ambitions sky-high.”
