Courtroom Drama Costs Al-Ahli Key Striker Ivan Toney for Riyadh Clash
Al-Ahli walked into Riyadh’s SHG Arena for the so‑called mini clásico without the striker they built this season around. Not because of injury. Not because of rotation. Because of a courtroom.
Ivan Toney, the club’s English centre-forward, was ruled out of the Roshn League clash with Al-Shabab after appearing at Southwark Crown Court in London on Thursday on a charge of assaulting a person by battery. The timing of the hearing left him with no realistic chance of making it back in time for Friday’s game.
The consequence was brutal in football terms: no Toney for one of Al-Ahli’s headline domestic fixtures.
Saudi outlet Arriyadiyah reported that the schedule simply beat him. By the time the legal business concluded, the window to travel and prepare had closed. The plan now is for Toney to rejoin his teammates directly in Qatar ahead of Monday’s AFC Champions League Elite meeting with Al-Sadd.
Pusic forced into a reshuffle
With his marquee striker unavailable, head coach Marino Pusic had to redraw the attacking blueprint.
He handed the central role to Firas Al-Buraikan, asking the Saudi international to lead the line in Toney’s absence. On the flanks, Portugal’s Francisco Trincao and Brazilian Matheus Goncalves were tasked with providing the width, the dribbling threat, and the service that usually funnels towards the Englishman.
One notable name did not make the XI. Brazilian winger Wenderson Galeno, finally over the injury that had kept him out of the previous four matches, was held back on the bench. Fit enough to feature, but not trusted yet to start a high-intensity league fixture away from home.
Pusic also made a big call in goal. Despite Senegalese goalkeeper Edouard Mendy travelling with the squad to Riyadh, the coach kept faith with Saudi stopper Abdulrahman Al-Sanbi, rewarding his recent form and continuity between the posts.
The stakes in the table
The backdrop to all this is a league table that leaves Al-Ahli with little margin for error.
They arrived in the capital sitting sixth in the Roshn League, on 21 points from 7 wins and 3 defeats. Respectable, but short of the standards and expectations that followed the club’s ambitious summer recruitment.
Al-Shabab, by contrast, started the day in twelfth on 11 points, looking upwards and trying to claw their way into mid-table comfort. A classic meeting of a heavyweight trying to stay in touch with the frontrunners and a giant in recovery mode trying to stabilise its season.
Toney’s absence only sharpened the sense that this was a test of Al-Ahli’s depth as much as their ambition.
How Al-Ahli lined up
Pusic’s selection underlined that point. This was the XI he trusted to navigate a tricky away assignment without his headline striker:
- Goalkeeper: Abdulrahman Al-Sanbi
- Defence: Mohammed Abdulrahman – Roger Ibanez – Rayan Hamed – Saad Balobaid
- Midfield: Valentin Atangana – Artem Bondarenko – Ziyad Al-Johani
- Attack: Francisco Trincao – Firas Al-Buraikan – Saleh Abu Al-Shamat
A blend of foreign pedigree and local talent, reconfigured on the fly because of events thousands of miles away in an English courtroom.
The legal process will run its course in London. In the meantime, Al-Ahli must prove they can keep pace in the league and compete in Asia while their star striker shuttles between headlines on and off the pitch.
