Roberto Firmino, a member of Liverpool in the English Professional Football Premier League (EPL), exploded a hat trick from his debut in Saudi Arabia.
Al Ahli, where Firmino belongs, won 3-1 in the opening round of the Saudi professional league in the 2023-2024 season against Alhazm at Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium outside Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on the 12th 스포츠토토 (Korea Standard Time).
The first contributor was definitely Firmino. Firmino, who scored his debut goal with a header six minutes after the start of the game, opened the opponent’s goal again four minutes later.
Algerian national winger Riyad Mahrez, who played for EPL Manchester City for five seasons, pushed in a cross from the right side.
Firmino completed a hat trick while he was at it.
In the 27th minute of the second half, he headed a cross from the left side, and when he was blocked by the goalkeeper, he kicked the flowing ball himself and scored his third goal.
Firmino, who moved from Hoffenheim (Germany) to Liverpool in 2015, has been one of the representative strikers of the EPL.
He scored 111 goals in 362 official matches, including 82 goals in 256 league matches in eight seasons for Liverpool.
Liverpool won the EPL in the 2019-2020 season, the FA Cup, the League Cup in the 2021-2022 season, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League (UCL) in the 2018-2019 and 2021-2022 seasons, and the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup.
In particular, he showed fantastic chemistry with Muhammad Salah (Liverpool) and Sadio Mane, now a member of Al-Nasr (Saudi), and Korean fans nicknamed him the “Manura Trio” after each letter from their names.
Saudi teams have recently brought in a large number of star-studded players from European football with their huge financial strength.
Al-Ahli, the “promoted team” who won the second division last season, is also at the forefront of this trend.
Mahrez, who worked with Firmino on the same day, also played in 236 official matches at Manchester City, scoring 78 goals and 59 assists.
Alan Saint-Maximain, who played as a three-top with the two, has also played for EPL Newcastle United since 2019.
In addition to the three-top, which is considered the world’s best league, the midfield is also strong. Cote d’Ivoire national team member Frank Keshier, who has been well-known such as AC Milan (Italy) and FC Barcelona (Spain), started as a central midfielder and contributed to the victory.
Al Ahli’s goalkeeper gloves were also worn by Senegal national team Edouard Mendy, who played for Chelsea (England) until last season.
Mendy led Chelsea’s UCL victory in 2021 to become the UEFA Goalkeeper of the Year, and also took the lead in Senegal’s African Cup of Nations and won the FIFA’s best goalkeeper.