Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH – Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, has issued directives to transfer well-known sports critic Dr. Madani Rahimi to one of the specialist hospitals in Jeddah and provide him best treatment after he suffered a stroke Wednesday morning.

This comes within the Crown Prince’s continuous care and support for sports persons and seeing to their needs.

A former Saudi football player, Madani Faraj Nasser Rahimi was born in 1946 in Yanbu governorate, western Saudi Arabia. He began his playing career in the Saudi league and represented Al-Ittihad Club during the 1960s.

His playing career saw a break when he had to give up playing football in order to pursue his postgraduate studies. He obtained a Ph.D. in education sociology. Rahimi returned to work as an administrator in Al-Ittihad during the period of 1982-1993.

He retired from administrative work and began a career as a sports commentator in various Arabic sports channels. His knowledge about football, both as a player and as an administrator, stood him good stead in this new career and was accepted as one of the best analysts who could read and comment the game on its merits. His sound technical discussions and clinical breakdown of the game made him one of the sought after football commentators and analysts.

He began as a sports analyst with ART Arabic satellite channel, with which he was associated until 2013 as a commentator in the Saudi sports channel, Al-Dawri channel and the Qatari Al-Kas channel.

While he donned the Al-Ittihad yellow and black colors as a player in the 1960s, he contributed to the Jeddah side’s dominance in the Saudi soccer scene in those years — considered to be its heydays. He was a member of the winning Ittihad side of the King’s Cup and Crown Prince’s Cup in 1963. He was on the victorious side even as an administrator for along with Al-Ittihad, they won the Al-Ittihad Cup in 1985, King’s Cup in 1987 and Crown Prince Cup in 1990.