“The trend, without a doubt, is to try and imitate men's football in [Saudi] Arabia. With the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, among other great talents from men's football who are coming to develop and make a name for themselves here in Arabia,” the coach admitted in an interview recently.

Luís Andrade, who is experiencing his third stint with a women's team in Dammam, after Benfica and Flamengo, is convinced that women's football in Saudi Arabia, which is only the second edition of the championship, will evolve.

“To grow, evolve and give this championship a very strong name, with players with a great profile, who have played in European championships, very strong teams in Europe, or the world cup themselves,” he added.

In this context, the eight clubs competing in the women's league can sign up to seven foreign players, in a system where four can play at first, to bring quality, but also to pass on knowledge.

“We've managed to get these players to develop, to help our team play good football and to help the Arab players once again. And that's what they're doing. Committed, focused, of course, they can only play four, that's where my choice will be,” he explained.

The former player, who has had to build a project from scratch since arriving at Al-Qadisiyah in September, has “two Colombians, a Brazilian, three Americans and a player from the Ivory Coast” in his squad.

“Al-Qadisiyah didn't have any players yet, they were the last team to do pre-season. In other words, I had three weeks to prepare for pre-season,” said the coach, emphasising the need to work on the players' positions.

The basic work was based on three aspects: signing foreign players, using lesser-used players from other teams - this being Al-Qadisiyah's first year - and testing new Arab players.

“Al-Qadisiyah joined this year. So, we started from scratch. In other words, we had to do 'trials' to invite girls to come and train with us. And then we collected the best players so that we could make a group to work with,” he said.

Given the team's performance, with four draws in four games and one of the best defences (two goals conceded), this logistic has given Luís Andrade great satisfaction.

“With a month and a half of pre-season work and training before the games, we're doing a good job, and we want to continue. It's not an easy task, but in any case, it's a very exciting

challenge,” he said.

In the group, communication is in English, with translation into Arabic, when necessary, in a squad that mixes professionals with part-time footballers with jobs other than football.

“The foreign players must be professionals because to live here in Arabia they have to have a professional contract. I also have Arab players who work. They work and play football. They work in the morning because we can only train in the evening due to the strong heat,” he revealed.

In the women's league, Andrade is one of the men's coaches, in a bet split between men and women, again changing society's more conservative paradigm: “It's half-and-half. We also have a second league, made up of male and female coaches,” he said.