Bringing global high-performance expertise to Team Saudi

Team Saudi is building the high-performance capability to help Saudi athletes compete on the international stage. Global Sports Talent is supporting that ambition by identifying and attracting world-class leaders, coaches and performance specialists from established high-performance systems around the world.

The challenge

Team Saudi is building the high-performance capability required to help Saudi athletes compete and succeed on the international stage.

That requires world-class people — leaders, coaches and performance specialists with experience of developing athletes and programmes at the highest levels of international sport.

Global Sports began working with Team Saudi to identify and attract that expertise globally. Now entering the second year of the partnership, our work spans senior high-performance leadership, individual sports and specialist athlete performance services.

Our approach

We search globally across established Olympic and high-performance systems, federations and elite programmes to find people with the experience to make a genuine difference.

But finding them is only part of the challenge.

For many candidates, joining Team Saudi means leaving an established programme and relocating themselves and often their family to Saudi Arabia. Our role is therefore as much about engagement as identification.

We work closely with Team Saudi on the ground, developing a first-hand understanding of the programmes, people and environment. That allows us to represent the opportunity credibly — helping candidates understand the ambition, the impact they can make and what living and working in Saudi Arabia could look like.

We have also helped create a structured candidate journey focused first on the role, contribution and cultural fit, before progressing through leadership conversations and an on-site immersion in Saudi Arabia.

The outcome

Global Sports understands that attracting world-class high-performance talent to Team Saudi is about much more than finding the right CV. They have taken the time to understand our programmes and ambition, searched globally for the expertise we need and, importantly, helped candidates understand both the opportunity to make an impact and what it means to build a life in Saudi Arabia.

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The partnership has already delivered two senior international appointments across high-performance leadership and Shooting, bringing proven experience from established international performance environments into Team Saudi. The senior high-performance mandate spans programme strategy, coaching, athlete development and performance across multiple sports, while the Shooting role leads the development of the sport's high-performance programme.

The partnership continues, with searches underway across Weightlifting, Fencing, Athlete Performance Services and further multi-sport high-performance leadership.

Together, these appointments are helping Team Saudi build capability across coaching, sports science, medicine, performance services and programme leadership — creating the expertise around athletes that supports sustainable high performance.

World-class performance needs world-class people. Our job is to find them, engage them and help bring that expertise to Team Saudi.