ROBERTO Mancini has been introduced as the new coach of Saudi Arabia.
The 58-year-old former Manchester City manager strangely left his post as Italy manager two weeks ago.
But now, the Saudi Football Federation has announced in a video the Italian as the next coach.
Mancini should have signed a staggering £77 million deal over 3 years.
According to Gazzetta dello Sport, it will be unveiled on Monday in a lavish rite in Riyadh.
Their first qualifying match will be against Costa Rica in a friendly at St James’ Park on September 8.
Four days later, the Green Falcons will face South Korea at the break.
Then, in their first match, they will face a qualifying match for the 2026 World Cup against Cambodia or Pakistan.
Saudi Arabia’s under-23 coach Saad Al-Shehri has been temporarily appointed to lead the senior team, which has been a permanent coach since Hervé Renard’s departure in March.
The Gulf State qualified for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, but was always eliminated at the organizational level.
However, they managed a memorable 2-1 win over world champion Argentina last year on stage.
Mancini is the new high profile in Saudi Arabia.
The players who have moved to the country are Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante, while Neymar arrived at Al-Hilal from Paris Saint-Germain.
FREE BETS AND REGISTRATION OFFERS – BEST OFFERS NEW CUSTOMERS
Mancini has had a long and successful managerial career managing Manchester City, Inter Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, Galatasaray and Zenit St. Petersburg.
He won the Serie A title three times with Inter and achieved a Premier League triumph with Man City.
As a tactician, he won Euro 2020 with the Azzurri beating England on penalties.
©News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. 679215 Registered Office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. “The Sun”, “Sun”, “Sun Online” are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. This service is provided under News Group Newspapers’ limited popular terms and situations in accordance with our Privacy and Cookie Policy. To request information about a license to reproduce material, please visit our distribution site. Check out our online press kit. For other requests, please contact us. To view all the content of The Sun, use the sitemap. Sun’s online site is regulated through the Independent Press Standards Organization (IPSO).
Our bloodhounds check that they are accurate, but we make mistakes. To learn more about our claims policy and register a claim, please click on this link: thesun. co. uk/editorial-complaints/