{"id":201238,"date":"2025-10-04T08:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T08:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/201238\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T08:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T08:54:09","slug":"cristiano-ronaldo-to-face-former-teammate-as-benzemas-al-ittihad-reportedly-hire-portuguese-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/201238\/","title":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo to face former teammate as Benzema\u2019s Al Ittihad reportedly hire Portuguese coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Last week, Al Ittihad<\/a> lost a crucial league match against Al Nassr, which led to the surprising decision to part ways with Laurent Blanc. 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 title and the King\u2019s Cup. But that wasn\u2019t enough to satisfy the board of directors.<\/p>\n

When announcing Blanc\u2019s departure, Al Ittihad stated that Hassan Khalifa would take over on an interim basis until a new coach was appointed. That plan was put into action, as Khalifa led Benzema<\/a> and his teammates in Tuesday\u2019s 1\u20130 loss to Shabab Al Ahli of the United Arab Emirates in the AFC Champions League Elite. 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 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<\/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, and Inter Milan. 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, and Vitoria Guimaraes before landing more high-profile opportunities at Nantes in France, Porto, and most recently, AC Milan.<\/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>. Alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, the league also features fellow Portuguese players like Joao Felix and Joao Cancelo. Al Nassr\u2019s head coach, Jorge Jesus, 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 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":2,"featured_media":201239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[115820,9522,9525,403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-201238","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"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}