OFFICIAL: Roberto Mancini is sacked by Saudi national team
It’s over between Saudi national team and Roberto Mancini.
Agreement teached today on a mutual understanding to end the contract.
Saudi Federation, already working on new head coach.
Mancini reached a surprise agreement with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) in 2023, just a few weeks after resigning as Italy coach.
However, the former Inter and Manchester City boss struggled to make an impact in the role, only winning seven of his 18 matches at the helm.
He also oversaw an underwhelming Asian Cup campaign in January, as Saudi Arabia were beaten in a last-16 penalty shoot-out by South Korea in Qatar.
A statement issued by the SAFF read: "The Board of Directors of the Saudi Football Federation and the coach of the national team, Roberto Mancini, reached a joint agreement today, which includes the end of the contractual relationship."
Mancini's position had reportedly been under consideration following a goalless draw with Bahrain earlier this month, a result that leaves them outside the automatic spots in their 2026 World Cup qualification group.
PrinceAbobyBlinkz
56
They should put the blame on Saudi Arabian clubs signing foreign players instead of developing their own players now all their best players always sit on the bench every week
PrinceAbobyBlinkz
23
Their poor form is not his fault, almost all their best players are not seeing playing time at their various clubs. They never seen anything yet as they prioritize wasting money on foreign players instead of developing their own players. it will even get worse as time goes on
Mpheme36
18
He shouldn't have taken the job in the first place. This is a top coach who deserves a top club/national team.
Evans0323
10
Mancini was never the problem, the problem is that they failed to build their league in a way that will benefit the national Team, you said you wanted to build Saudi league, then you are are benching all your home based players and playing all the foreigners that you signed, so when the international duty comes, will those players represent Saudi National team? So was is now the influence on so called players on the league, in top 7 league in the world you can’t find any Saudi players on those league, but you can find Iran, Japan, China, Korea in those leagues around the world but you hardly see a Club outside of Asia continent buying Saudi base players