Mancini in Saudi Arabia: the timing of the agreement is not convincing

Maybe he didn’t want to miss Qatar. And given that he had missed the appointment with Italy, alas, nothing better than Saudi Arabia to immediately go and play an Asian Cup in Doha and its surroundings. It’s not the World Cup, but there were thirty million good reasons to say yes. Roberto d’Arabia is the new head coach of the Saudi national team. End of a now cloying soap opera. Yesterday the presentation in Riad, in a large hotel in the capital. All very fast because Mancini now has to get to work immediately, draw up the first list of players called up and settle in a world that will be his until 2027.

The highest paid

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From Italy to Saudi Arabia, however, the coach’s incurable optimism never changes, even if he got seriously burned last time out. It is still too early to promise the World Cup, but Mancini assures his new fans that “we will go to the Asian Cup to win”. It would really go down in history, given that the enterprise hasn’t been successful for twenty-seven years. Meanwhile, he has already earned an important place in history: he is the highest paid coach ever, whether it’s twenty-five or thirty million (net) that the Saudi Football Federation has promised him. The Italian salary multiplied five or six times, impossible to say “no”. It would have been easier to recognize him, instead of turning around the story of the contact with the Arabs that took place on August 15th. No one believes it, least of all the Arabs who in June, having intercepted the post-Nations malaise, had Fifa agent Ramadani contact him.

Staff in Newcastle

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However, Mancini’s international image has not been affected by the missed Qatar. The welcome in Arabia, to stay on topic, is royal. Mancini, who left Bologna yesterday at 9 in the morning on a private flight, arrived in Riyadh with Salsano and Lombardo, the loyalists since the days of Sampdoria. The others (Battara, Scanavino, Donatelli, Gagliardi, Contran) should join Newcastle for the double friendly debut with Costa Rica (8 September) and South Korea (12). The team manager Oriali who knows. Meanwhile, Mancio will go to live in the condominium dedicated to the national staff.

Contradictions

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Mancini went back to the timing of the negotiations: «I started talking to the Saudi federation in mid-August, some of my assistants did not know about this situation. Now they have to resolve issues in Italy but there are enough of us to get started». That is: everything would have happened after the famous Pec to the federation with which the coach resigned. But there are so many things that don’t add up, starting with the contradiction on “technical” times: “We’ve been working on the players for about ten days, even though we already knew the team from the World Cup,” he said. Ten days? Since August 17? Saudis in football are called Green Falcons: they must have swooped down on him after reading about his resignation in the papers. Even the theory of the farewell to the FIGC linked to the failure to confirm two collaborators holds up little: Evani and Sandreani, they themselves, did not follow him to Arabia.

Emerging Arabia

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Too bad for this stubborn and not very credible image, because Mancini’s is a fascinating adventure like few others, in the country at the center of world attention for the “strategic project” for the growth of Saudi football, with the silent blessing of Fifa. On the other hand, it was the Riyadh federation that officially requested the biennial World Cup on behalf of Zurich. Then the launch of the big overpaid league. The national team could not stay behind. «It is clear that we will need time but we are sure that if we work in the right way we can teach the team to attack well and score many goals. There aren’t many Saudi players on the pitch, we’ll have time to study everyone well. I know that there are many interesting young people».

In destiny

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Arabia was in destiny. Mancini made his debut as coach on 28 May 2018: he beat Saudi Arabia 2-1 in a friendly match in St. Gallen, Switzerland. On August 28, 2023 he was presented in Riyadh. In the middle, Saudi’s success over Argentina in the World Cup: a 2-1 which ended the positive streak of Scaloni’s team, leaving Italy with the world record of 37 games without defeats (“I have to thank you”, Mancio smiles) . Since that day, however, Arabia has played seven games and lost six (Mexico, Poland, Iraq, Oman, Venezuela, Bolivia), beating only Yemen. There will be work, yes.