JEDDAH, 1 April 2003 — Saudi Arabia’s leading soccer club, Al-Ittihad are on the lookout for a new coach. And in their search to replace Oscar, who was given the sack on Saturday, they are casting their eye as far as Romania.
Sources close to the club have revealed that Al-Ittihad are targeting Romanian coach Anghel Iordanescu, who quit as the national team boss just two days ago. Iordanescu is being eyed to take over at the Jeddah outfit, largely because of his stint with Al-Hilal.
This is ironic in the sense that it was Hilal which brought about a halt to the seemingly unstoppable winning sequence of Ittihad. Ittihad are the runaway leaders in the King Fahd Cup Soccer Tournament and were in fine form in the Crown Prince Abdullah Cup Soccer event when they ran into a rejuvenated Hilal in the semifinal of the Crown Prince Cup. They lost the tie 0-2, and coach Oscar then lost his job.
Ittihad’s Mansour Al-Balawi said that the new coach would be announced soon. But he refused to confirm or deny Ittihad’s move to appoint Iordanescu. The only thing he confirmed was that the club was looking at coaches who had earlier worked in the Kingdom. This was the sole indication that talks with the Romanian were already on.
The sources also revealed that in the event Iordanescu and Ittihad fail to agree terms than Ittihad would turn their sights on Demetri from Belgium. Balawi again did not deny or confirm this move, saying, “The one who will take over as coach will be highly qualified and we are in touch with coaches who have coached in Saudi Arabia before.”
Balawi again said that 70 percent of the blame for losing to Hilal was Oscar’s, while the players share 30 percent of the blame. “We the management try to provide a perfect environment for our players and this we hope will help them perform better,” he said. “As regards professional players, it is upto the new coach whether he wants them or not.”
