(Riyadh) The Saudi club Al-Nassr, where Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo plays, said Thursday that it had separated from its French coach Rudi Garcia, in office since July 2022.
“Al-Nassr can announce that the head coach Rudi Garcia has left the club”, wrote the Saudi formation on his Twitter account, before announcing in another tweet that the Croatian Dinko Jelicic, current coach of the under-19s of the club, would take control of the first team.
“The board and everyone at Al-Nassr would like to thank Rudi and his team for their dedicated work over the past eight months,” the club continued.
According to several foreign media, the former coach of OL and OM was pushed out for his poor results and his bad relationship with his group.
Al-Nassr, currently second in the Saudi league, the Saudi Pro League, three points behind first, lost in early March to leaders Al-Ittihad and drew 0-0 against Al-Feiha at the weekend last.
But according to the Spanish media Marca, the tensions between him and his players, and in particular Cristiano Ronaldo, would have been the trigger for the separation with Rudi Garcia.
“The result is really bad, and we are not happy,” explained the coach after last weekend’s draw at the microphone of Saudi Sports Company (SSC). “I am not satisfied with the performance of the players. I asked them to play at the same level as the last game (a 5-0 win over Al-Adalah), but that didn’t happen”.
Garcia was the fifth Frenchman to coach the club, after Robert Herbin, Jean Fernandez, Henri Michel, and Patrice Carteron.
Garcia made a career in France, notably in Lille, Marseille and Lyon, with a spell at AS Roma between 2013 and 2016.
Author of the French Championship-Coupe de France double on the bench of Lille in 2010-2011, he won at the end of that season the trophy for best Ligue 1 coach awarded by the UNFP (National Union of Professional Footballers ).