Italian coach Roberto Mancini, the coach of Saudi Arabia, believes that professional football clubs’ frequent contracts with foreign players cast a negative shadow on the national team, noting that the exclusion of defender Ali Al- Bulaihi of the team was for “technical reasons”.
Saudi Arabia will host rivals Japan at the King Abdullah International Stadium tomorrow, Thursday, in the third leg of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Saudi Arabia has 4 points in second place, two points behind Japan, which leads with a full score.
Coach Mancini told reporters on Wednesday: “We have a crisis at the goalkeeper position. The players are not continuously participating with the clubs.”
He added: “Abdul Rahman Al-Sanabi (Al-Ahly goalkeeper) only participated in the last two matches due to the injury of Edouard Mendy, the main goalkeeper. We do not have a goalkeeper who continually participates with his team.”
Al Hilal goalkeeper Mohammed Al Owais suffered an injury that kept him out of coach Mancini’s squad.
The coach added: “Foreign players participate up to 60% with their clubs, which limits the participation of locals. We suffer from this problem.”
Asked about the exclusion of Al Hilal defender Ali Al-Bulaihi and fellow striker Abdullah Al-Hamdan, the former Italy coach said: “The exclusion is for technical reasons, the performance of the duo hasn’t been stable recently. returning to the required level, they will definitely join us, as happened before.