Lluís Cortés: From Barcelona glory to women's football in Saudi Arabia | OneFootball

Four weeks after Real Madrid made history in 2020 by winning the first expanded Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia, the women’s equivalent took place in Salamanca, Spain.

The men’s final in Jeddah ended goalless after extra-time, with Real requiring penalties to get past city rivals Atlético de Madrid, but the Femenina competition had a decidedly different outcome. Also making its four-team debut, the women’s tournament saw Barcelona collect the trophy with a remarkable 10-1 victory over Real Sociedad.

Real Madrid used their success in Saudi as a launchpad to win LaLiga later that season, while Barcelona Femenina went even better by claiming the domestic double. Liga F was secured with 99 points – a 25-point margin on rivals Real Madrid – before claiming the Copa de la Reina.

The following season, Barça clinched the treble, adding the Women’s Champions League title to their haul to be regarded as the greatest women’s team in history.

📸 David Lidstrom - 2021 Getty Images

The manager who masterminded Barcelona’s unprecedented success is now undertaking a vastly different challenge, albeit one that is no less ambitious. Lluís Cortés left Barça at the end of their treble-winning season and is now tasked with building something entirely new in Saudi Arabia.

Football has a long history in Saudi, but the women’s game is in its infancy. The national team only played its first competitive match in February 2022, yet the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) has outlined its goal of qualifying for a World Cup in 10 years. It’s an ambition consistent with much of the sporting transformation undertaken across the Kingdom.

“The main opportunity is that it's a completely new team,” Cortés tells OneFootball inside the King Abdullah Sports City stadium in Jeddah, where the 2025 Spanish Super Cup is being held. “For many, they started playing football only few years ago, so it's an opportunity because you can teach them the football you want them to play.

“At the same time, it's a challenge because they don't have much experience. But I'm very proud of them because in only one year, the improvement of the team is huge.”

As Cortés points out, working with a blank slate has given him and his coaching staff a unique opportunity to imprint a style and build a culture that didn’t previously exist. Unsurprisingly, it’s the Spanish model of coaching and development that the Saudi women’s team has adopted.

“We have a similar profile of players,” he says. “Of course, at Barça the main difference is the players started playing football 20 years ago, but the idea is to implement this style of play in Saudi Arabia based on positional play, possession, brave defending, and pressing high.”

Instrumental to executing Cortés’s plans and SAFF’s long-term targets for the Saudi women’s team is the talent they have at their disposal. It’s a talent pool that continues to rapidly increase, led by the launch of the Saudi Women’s Premier League, now in its third season and expanded to 10 teams. Hosting events like the Spanish Super Cup and providing young girls the chance to be inspired by the world’s best teams is also vital to boosting participation numbers.

“It's not only thanks to the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, but also to the clubs who are investing a lot in women's football,” Cortes says. “Now we have a professional league with 10 clubs, a First Division, a Second Division, and an U17 league. We are going to also start an U15 league.

“So every time more girls will be involved in the football ecosystem, the improvement will be huge. We are on the right track. We are open to help any women who want to play football because the more players we have, the quality will increase.”

📸 ABDULLAH ALFALEH - AFP or licensors

The improvement is evident in the results. Saudi Arabia played 12 matches in 2014 and ended the year with two wins and two draws in their last five games. It has given Cortés a base upon which to set realistic short-term targets before looking ahead to that ultimate long-term goal.

“My idea is to become a key team in the West Asian Football Federation, then the next step would be to qualify for a big tournament like an Asian Cup,” the Spanish coach says. “Someday we can represent Saudi Arabia in a World Cup – that would be amazing.”

📸 Laszlo Szirtesi - 2019 Getty Images