Hervé Renard Returns as Saudi National Team Coach: New Contract Until 2025 and World Cup Aspirations

The Frenchman Hervé Renard, the new coach of the Saudi national team, expressed his willingness to take over the Al-Akhdar coaching job for a second period, as he replaced the Italian Roberto Mancini, after a period of variable results for Al -Akhdar in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

The Saudi Football Association revealed details of Renard’s new contract with Al Akhdar, which runs until the end of 2025, with the option to extend until the 2027 Asian Cup.

Renard, in a statement to Al-Riyadiah newspaper, said that he wants to take on this challenge with everyone, players, management and fans, and that he wants to be worthy on the World Cup, to make the Saudi fans happy, praising the confidence of Yasser Al-Mashal, the President of the Football Association, and its Board of Directors, in it and returning it to the leadership The technical staff is green again.

Renard is expected to begin his career with the Saudi national team, by facing Australia, at the Amy Park Stadium in Melbourne, on November 14, and then heading to Jakarta, to meet Indonesia on the 19th of the following month, in the fifth and sixth rounds of the Asian qualifiers.

Mancini left coaching the Saudi national team, based on the Football Association’s decision to end the contractual relationship with him, based on the decline in results in the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, where the Greens are in third place in the third group with 5 points, after two draws with Indonesia (1-1) and Bahrain without goals, a difficult victory over China (2-1) and a loss against Japan (0- 2).