Mohamed Al-Deayea

Mohamed Abdullaziz Al-Deayea (born 2 August 1972) is a Saudi Arabian retired football goalkeeper. He played in four FIFA World Cups for the Saudi Arabia national team and earned a total of 176 caps.^[1] He also achieved the first best Goalkeeper of the Century from Asia award ahead of Nasser Hejazi in second and In-Young Choi in third place respectively.

Club career

Al-Deayea has split his professional career between the clubs Al-Ta'ee and Al-Hilal. Originally he started as a handball player, but was convinced by his club and his older brother Abdullah to become a footballer. Mohammed was under great pressure in the beginning of his career because of having to wear the shoes of his brother Abdullah, who was an AFC Asian Cup winner and a highly reputed goalkeeper too.

Retirement

On 22 June 2010, Mohamed Al-Deayea announced his retirement from football at the age of 37. On 5 January 2012, a big farewell match was organised between Al-Hilal and Juventus F.C.. 70,000 people were packed in the King Fahd Stadium. The match ended 1–7 in favour of Juventus with one goal from Saad Al-Harthi. Juventus scored with two goals by Alessandro Del Piero and scored with one goal by Eljero Elia, Arturo Vidal, Giorgio Chiellini, Simone Pepe and Fabio Quagliarella.