Tijjani Reijnders Shines in Saudi Roshn League

Tijjani Reijnders is wasting no time rewriting his story.

Barely a few weeks into life in the Saudi Roshn League, the Netherlands midfielder is already playing like a man determined to justify every cent of the record fee Al-Qadsiah paid to prise him from Manchester City.

On Tuesday night at Prince Mohammed bin Fahd Stadium in Dammam, he did more than just dictate play. He decided the tone of the contest.

Al-Qadsiah faced Al-Ahli in the sixth round of the league, and Reijnders, handed another start, seized the stage early. Fourteen minutes in, the ball broke to him on the edge of the penalty area. One touch, then a vicious strike that tore past Édouard Mendy, the Senegalese goalkeeper left grasping at air as the shot ripped into the net.

It was the sort of finish that announces a player to a new league. Clean. Confident. Uncompromising.

The pressure kept building. Al-Qadsiah pushed, Al-Ahli wobbled, and just when the first half seemed to be drifting to a close, Reijnders struck again. Three minutes into stoppage time, Mohammed Abu Al-Shamat whipped in a cross, and the Dutchman timed his run perfectly, rising to meet it and steering a header home for his team’s third.

A thunderous drive from distance, then a poacher’s header. Two very different goals, one clear message: Al-Qadsiah’s record signing is already at the heart of everything.

The brace took his tally to three goals for the club, his second and third since arriving from Manchester City in the last summer transfer window. His first had come early as well, in only his second appearance, during a composed 2-0 win over Neom in the third round of the Roshn League.

That early burst has already outstripped his opening chapter in Manchester. For City, he managed just a single goal in his first four matches last season, scoring against Wolverhampton on the Premier League’s opening weekend before his impact faded into the noise of a star-studded squad.

In Saudi Arabia, there is no such anonymity. Reijnders is the headline act.

He remains the most expensive signing in Al-Qadsiah’s history, the club having paid a reported 61 million euros to bring him from Manchester City. That price tag can weigh heavily on some players. On nights like this in Dammam, it looks more like fuel.

If this is only the beginning, the Roshn League may be about to witness a very different version of Tijjani Reijnders from the one that flickered briefly in England.