Roberto Mancini completely crossed the line in Saudi Arabia

Officially coach of Saudi Arabia since August 23, 2023 after his surprise departure from Italy, Roberto Mancini is experiencing a very eventful adventure despite a lucrative contract worth 50 million euros for a period of two and a half years, as well as only 10 million euros in bonuses. The project was nevertheless interesting on paper. In parallel with the development of its championship, the Kingdom now gives itself the mission of building a great national team in view of the 2034 World Cup which will be organized at home since Saudi Arabia is the only country to have submitted a candidacy file. before the deadline. This is how the Saudi Arabia Football Federation (SAFF) chose Roberto Mancini to build on the good performances left in Qatar. Indeed, the Green Falcons, then coached by French coach Hervé Renard, managed to overthrow the future World champions, during a now memorable meeting against Argentina (2-1), in Group C of the 2022 World Cup. Note that Saudi Arabia will host the AFC Asian Cup for the first time in its history in 2027. For his first outings at the head of the Saudi selection, Roberto Mancini rather disappointed, to the point to be quickly called into question. During the international break in September 2023, Saudi Arabia played two matches against Costa Rica (3-1) and South Korea (1-0), ending in two glaring setbacks with no real positive point. However, the native of Jesi wants to keep hope and hopes to rely on the internationals present in the Saudi Pro League.

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At the start of 2024, in Qatar, Saudi Arabia did not shine either during the 2023 Asian Cup with this elimination in the round of 16 of the competition against South Korea. A poor performance which drew the wrath of Saudi supporters, while the Kingdom continues to dream big to achieve total domination on a continental scale. And a few months later, things are no better for Roberto Mancini. During this international break, the Green Falcons lost in Jeddah against Japan (0-2) and had to settle for a draw (0-0) against Bahrain. Consequences of this, Saudi Arabia is in 3rd position in Group C of the 3rd round of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers. This would therefore imply that the Saudi selection will have to go through the play-off box of the 4th round to hope to be on the plane direction United States / Canada / Mexico. And as if that wasn’t already enough, Mancini was noted on several occasions for mood swings. At the end of the press conference after the match against Japan, he distributed two documents containing statistics from the match to the journalists present to prove to them the Saudi domination. And at the final whistle of the match against Bahrain, the Italian was seen getting angry with Saudi fans, exclaiming “screw you !» with a clenched fist. The record of Saudi Arabia’s last 5 meetings is therefore as follows: 1 victory, 2 draws and 2 defeats.

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Two names of successors are already circulating

Yasser Al-Mashal, president of the Saudi Football Federation, has revealed that a decisive meeting will take place in the coming hours, to make a decision regarding Roberto Mancini’s future with the national team. This follows the draw against Bahrain (0-0), last night, Tuesday, in the fourth round of the group stage, during the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup: “the level was good. We must apologize to the large public who support us. We have not seen the Saudi national team in this situation. We are not satisfied with what is happening. Getting two points from three home matches is unacceptable. A decision will be made God willing. It is impossible to let the team present itself like this for three matches in front of an audience that supports them from the first minute to the last minute, for a long time. It is not possible to evaluate it now. We are in a period of anger. Tomorrow we will meet with the technical administration and, God willing, something good will happen. We didn’t talk about any decisions. Just give us several days to watch“, he declared after the meeting. After Al-Mashal’s speech, the press announced in recent hours that the Saudi Football Federation had reached an agreement with the Portuguese Jorge Jesus, coach of the Al-Hilal club, to lead the national team for the next three years, succeeding Roberto Mancini. Moroccan Houccine Ammuta was also mentioned. Just like a comeback from Frenchman Hervé Renard according to Al Riyadh.

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However, the newspaper Al-Jazeera revealed a huge surprise today Wednesday by confirming that a local coach is set to be appointed as head of the Saudi national team, and not Jorge Jesus, as has been reported in recent hours. The newspaper explains that Saleh Al-Mohammadi, the coach of the Al-Hazm club, is very close to taking over the technical direction of the Saudi national team according to the Qatari daily, while Roberto Mancini risks leaving. get sacked. But the Italian coach maintains his confidence in himself and sees further for his project: “we missed a penalty and many chances, and our possession reached 87%, and overall we deserved to win. If we had scored the two penalties we missed against Indonesia and Bahrain, our score would have now reached 9 points. Our offense is not at the required level and we have been dealing with this problem for some time. I involved all the attackers in the match and we had no luck. Firas, Wardeef and Salem will need to be worked on more in the future. It’s easy to blame the coach, but the players also bear responsibility and need to perform better“, he clarified. In any case, one thing is almost certain: Roberto Mancini will be fired from his post in the coming days.