RIYADH: A Saudi startup aims to help the world’s biggest football clubs make talent scouting more efficient.
The history of football is full of tales of chance sightings by a scout that has led to many a glittering career in the game.
At the same time, across amateur and weekend leagues the world over, there are many talented footballers who are never seen by a scout and never have a professional career.
Saudi startup Grintafy aims to help make the process of identifying emerging talents more efficient by helping footballers build their profile in the game through the ratings of fellow players which can in turn be showcased to potential scouts and clubs.
It is one of several new Saudi technology startups that has started to make international waves as the sector attracts more venture capital.
West Ham United last week become an official club partner for the fledgling platform which will see Grintafy have a presence across the club’s growing global digital channels as well as becoming the presenting partner of all academy match highlights.
The agreement allows coaching and technical staff at West Ham full access to view Grintafy user profiles and stats.
Selected players will then be chosen and invited to an official tryout in England.
The relationship will also see West Ham United Academy coaches deliver coaching programs in the Middle East.
“At West Ham United, we pride ourselves on our ability and capacity to nurture talent. We are excited to work in partnership with Grintafy to create experiences for aspiring players,” said Nathan Thompson, commercial director at West Ham United.
Grintafy will also be holding regular regional and national open tryouts to find the best of the best. Players chosen will have the once in a lifetime opportunity to travel to England and train like a West Ham academy player.
“Grintafy was started so that every young footballer has an opportunity to make their dream come true, regardless of their economic status or access to resources,” said Grintafy CEO Majdi Al-Lulu. “This partnership ensures that we are bringing international opportunities to the Kingdom and keeping our focus on the 2030 vision. West Ham has a rich history and pedigree for developing talent and giving youth a platform to shine. This perfectly aligns with our key values.”
Saudi Grintafy football scout platform helps clubs to discover the next Messi
https://arab.news/jpmgd
Saudi Grintafy football scout platform helps clubs to discover the next Messi
- Platform allows players to build their profiles
- Saudi tech startups boom as sector attracts wave of cash
Private sector dynamism driving labor market growth in Saudi Arabia, landmark report says
RIYADH: A “structural shift” in the Saudi economy has led to the share of citizens employed in the private sector reaching 52.8 percent, surpassing the 51.4 percent target, according to a landmark report.
Prepared in collaboration with the Global Labor Market Conference, World Bank Group and the Kingdom’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, the release titled “A Decade of Progress,” offers an analytical overview of the nation’s job market transformation over the past decade.
Figures as of the second quarter of 2025 showed the Kingdom was not only ahead of its target for the year for the share of Saudis working in the private sector, but only 5.5 percentage points away from the Saudi Vision 2030 goal of 58.3 percent.
The analysis also highlights a structural shift in the role of the private sector in Saudi Arabia’s job market, particularly among women.
Strengthening the private sector and enhancing women’s participation in the workforce is a crucial goal outlined in the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 agenda, as the nation is steadily pursuing its economic diversification efforts by reducing its dependence on crude revenues.
“The private sector is now one of the driving forces behind new job growth in Saudi Arabia, in line with its economic diversification vision. Employment ratios increased as inactive individuals moved into jobs, driving a notable drop in Saudi unemployment and expanding the productive workforce,” said Cristobal Ridao-Cano, practice manager for social protection and labor in the Middle East and North Africa, Pakistan, and Afghanistan at the World Bank.
He added: “The knowledge attained from Saudi Arabia’s transformation model can be transferred to other countries.”
The Kingdom has the goal of increasing the share of Saudi citizens employed in the private sector to 58.3 percent by the end of this decade.
According to the report, the share of employment in micro-enterprises increased from 6 percent in 2015 to 26 percent of total employment by 2025, underscoring the sector’s vitality.
This improvement was supported by a sustained decline in labor market mismatch over the decade, and an increase in education-to-job matching from 41 percent in 2015 to 62 percent in 2025, reducing skills-related barriers to employment.
“Labor market frictions also declined, reflected in a notable rise in job-to-job transitions and increased labor mobility toward private sector firms,” added the study.
According to the analysis, the Kingdom witnessed a notable expansion in the productive labor force, driven by an increase in participation to 67.1 percent by 2025.
Saudi Arabia’s overall unemployment rate recorded a significant decline, reaching 2.8 percent by mid-2025, as increasing numbers of economically inactive individuals moved directly into occupations.
Female employment increased from 11 percent in 2015 to 32 percent in 2025, while work among mothers rose from 8 percent to 45 percent over the same period.
The employment rate in the category of youth, aged between 18 and 24, increased from 10 percent in 2015 to 33 percent in 2025, while the share of youth not in education, employment, or training declined from 40 percent to 25 percent during the same period.
The report also highlighted a significant shift in social norms and job search preferences.
From 2015 to 2025, the share of individuals unwilling to work declined from 49 percent to 12 percent, while the preference gap between the public and private sectors narrowed considerably.
The share of jobseekers who were exclusively seeking public sector jobs fell from 60 percent to 10 percent for men, and from 48 percent to 22 percent for women.
A large share of jobseekers now target private sector opportunities, reflecting stronger alignment between work preferences and actual job search behavior.
“Social norms related to women’s employment also shifted substantially. Acceptance of women working in mixed-gender workplaces has increased, directly contributing to higher female employment in private sector companies, expanding opportunities available to women, and strengthening their integration into the labor market,” added the report.
