{"id":275118,"date":"2025-10-03T17:32:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T17:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/275118\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T17:32:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T17:32:15","slug":"cristiano-ronaldo-to-face-former-teammate-as-benzemas-al-ittihad-reportedly-hire-portuguese-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/275118\/","title":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo to face former teammate as Benzema\u2019s Al Ittihad reportedly hire Portuguese coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a><\/strong> joined Al Nassr<\/strong> in early 2023, more and more Portuguese players and coaches have found opportunities in the Saudi Pro League.<\/strong> Now, Karim Benzema<\/strong>\u2019s Al Ittihad<\/strong> has reportedly agreed to hire a coach from Portugal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Last week, Al Ittihad<\/a><\/strong> lost a crucial league match against Al Nassr, which led to the surprising decision to part ways with Laurent Blanc<\/strong>. The French coach had been in charge for just over a year and had achieved strong results, guiding the team to the 2024\u201325 Saudi Pro League<\/strong> title and the King\u2019s Cup<\/strong>. But that wasn\u2019t enough to satisfy the board of directors.<\/p>\n

When announcing Blanc\u2019s departure, Al Ittihad stated that Hassan Khalifa<\/strong> would take over on an interim basis until a new coach was appointed. That plan was put into action, as Khalifa led Benzema<\/a><\/strong> and his teammates in Tuesday\u2019s 1\u20130 loss to Shabab Al Ahli<\/strong> of the United Arab Emirates in the AFC Champions League Elite<\/strong>. That result may have sped up the search for Blanc\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAl Ittihad reach verbal agreement to appoint S\u00e9rgio Concei\u00e7\u00e3o as new head coach,\u201d<\/strong> reported journalist Fabrizio Romano on Thursday via his official X account. \u201cThe deal is at advanced stages just fixing the length of the contract likely to be for next two years,\u201d added the Italian reporter. \u201cConcei\u00e7\u00e3o said yes to Al Ittihad.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Christian<\/p>\n

Portuguese coach Sergio Conceicao.<\/p>\n

Who is Sergio Conceicao?<\/p>\n

Sergio Conceicao was a standout winger who played professionally through the 1990s and 2000s, appearing for top clubs like Porto, Lazio, Parma,<\/strong> and Inter Milan<\/strong>. After retiring in the 2009\u201310 season, he transitioned into coaching, a career he has pursued almost continuously since 2012.<\/p>\n

\"$140<\/p>\n

see also<\/p>\n

$140 million Saudi Pro League plan could shockingly hand Manchester United another Cristiano Ronaldo reunion<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

As a coach, Conceicao has steadily climbed the ranks. He started with modest clubs like Olhanense, Academica, Braga, <\/strong>and Vitoria Guimaraes<\/strong> before landing more high-profile opportunities at Nantes <\/strong>in France, Porto<\/strong>, and most recently, AC Milan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

His most successful spell came at Porto, where he coached from 2017 to 2024, overseeing 379 matches with a win rate of 72.3%. During that time, Conceicao won eleven titles. His latest stint at Milan was less successful, lasting under six months with a 51.6% win rate.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo and Conceicao<\/p>\n

The potential arrival of Sergio Conceicao at Al Ittihad would mark another Portuguese star joining the Saudi Pro League<\/a><\/strong>. Alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, the league also features fellow Portuguese players like Joao Felix<\/strong> and Joao Cancelo<\/strong>. Al Nassr\u2019s head coach, Jorge Jesus,<\/strong> is also Portuguese.<\/p>\n

Conceicao and Ronaldo also share a brief history as teammates. When Cristiano was just beginning his professional journey and earning his first call-ups to the Portugal national team<\/strong> in 2003, he briefly overlapped with Conceicao, who played his final international matches that same year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since Cristiano Ronaldo joined Al Nassr in early 2023, more and more Portuguese players and coaches have found…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":275119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[142343,16354,16352,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-275118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-al-ittihad","9":"tag-cristiano-ronaldo","10":"tag-saudi-pro-league","11":"tag-soccer","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115311434859403922","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}