I have followed the media and public reactions following the national team's results in the World Cup currently being held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The current reactions are a repeat of those that follow every Saudi national team failure.

Discussion about the future of the Saudi national team should not be limited to the results of a match or tournament. Instead, it must start from a more important question: how do we build a team capable of competing for two or three decades? The answer begins with a clear roadmap, not temporary reactions.

I believe the most important step is to establish comprehensive national talent development centers distributed across the Kingdom's main regions. Each region would have a specialized center operating year-round, staffed with qualified coaches, professional scouts, and specialists in fitness, nutrition, and mental preparation.

Talent scouting would start at an early age, with integrated training programs combining skill, sports culture, discipline, and education. Thus, player development becomes a national project rather than an individual effort.

At the end of each sports season, the best talents from these centers would be selected for external camps with European clubs and academies, to gain exposure to top football schools and experience in professional environments. By repeating this process annually, we would build a broad base of talented and qualified players, instead of relying on sporadic talent discovery.

The idea of such centers is not new globally. Germany, after its decline in results at the turn of the millennium, did not seek quick fixes. Instead, it invested in a vast network of talent development centers linked to clubs, the federation, and schools. The result was a golden generation that returned the national team to the World Cup podium in 2014. The experience proved that real investment is not in focusing on results in a specific tournament, but in the talented and qualified player who can wear and honor the national jersey for years.

Saudi Arabia today possesses financial resources, infrastructure, government support, and the great ambition reflected in Vision 2030. All that remains is a comprehensive national system for talent development based on a long-term plan.

We need only to shift our thinking from seeking victory in a match to developing the next player. Because then we will have taken the first real step on the right path toward a Saudi team that competes consistently, not by chance... Champions are not born; they are made by strategies.