Al-Ittihad Loan Stefan Cleary to Beveren for Season
Al-Ittihad have drawn a clear line through Stefan Cleary’s season – and it runs straight through Belgium.
On Tuesday evening, “The Dean” confirmed that the young forward will spend the rest of the current campaign on loan at Beveren, a move designed less as a goodbye and more as an investment in what he could become.
The club’s official X account carried the announcement: Beveren’s request for a loan has been approved, with Cleary heading to the Belgian side until the end of the season. For Al-Ittihad, “The Tigers”, it is a calculated release. For the player, it is a chance to step out of the shadows and into regular football.
Al-Ittihad’s thinking is blunt and simple: he has to play. Minutes have been hard to come by in Jeddah amid fierce competition for attacking places, and the club hierarchy want their prospect learning on the pitch, not from the bench. Belgium offers a different rhythm, a different intensity, and crucially, a clearer path to the starting XI.
The plan is straightforward. Cleary will stay with Beveren until the campaign’s end, then return to Al-Ittihad unless fresh developments reshape his future. No drama, no hidden twist – just a season-long test abroad that will help determine whether he can force his way into a squad packed with ambition and expectation.
Before he left, the message from the management was supportive and direct. They wished him success, urged him to make the most of the opportunity, and made it clear they want him back as a sharper, more seasoned player. The tone was not farewell. It was challenge.
His departure also fits neatly into a broader strategy. Al-Ittihad are reshaping their squad with an eye on both the present and the next few years, blending high-profile arrivals with carefully chosen exits. Some players are brought in to raise the immediate level. Others, like Cleary, are sent out to grow under different pressures and return better equipped for the internal battle that awaits.
So Cleary steps away from Al-Ittihad, but not out of their plans. He goes to Beveren with the club’s blessing, a point to prove, and a season to show he can turn potential into something more concrete. How he handles Belgian football’s demands may say a lot about whether his next chapter in Jeddah is as a squad option—or something far more central.
