N’Golo Kante completes Ittihad signing, joins Karim Benzema in Jeddah

(Ittihad photo)
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Updated 11 August 2023
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N’Golo Kante completes Ittihad signing, joins Karim Benzema in Jeddah

RIYADH: French superstar N’Golo Kante has completed his transfer to Saudi side Al-Ittihad, the club announce early on Wednesday, and joins fellow Frenchman Karim Benzema in Jeddah.

The team made fun of rumors around the deal being scuttled by medical issues  in a video skit on Twitter, showing the midfielder failing his medical before breaking the good news to fans.

“One time I told you are the best box-to-box player in the world,” Benzema said in a video clip conversation with Kante, “now I am happy to play with you again, and of course, in the best team in Saudi.”

Kante replied: “I am pleased to play with you — the best player in the world — and I am very excited to play with the Tigers in Al-Jawhara (the team’s home stadium)”.

 

 

The club released photos of a smiling Kante holding up the club’s iconic black and yellow jersey bearing his name and the number 7.

Reports earlier this month said the agreement was being held up by medical checks on the player, who has a history of injuries.

The 32 year-old’s contract with Chelsea is due to end this month. He missed six months of action for the London side with a hamstring problem this past season. 

The diminutive defensive midfielder who is renowned for his boundless energy helped France win a World Cup in Russia in 2018. He was also instrumental in Leicester City’s fairytale Premier League win in 2016. He went on to win it again with Chelsea the following year. 

Kante is expected to bring some of that box-to-box energy for the league winners Ittihad next season.

 

 

Earlier this month, Ittihad completed the signing of Ballon d'Or-winner Benzema after his years of success with Real Madrid. This follows Al-Nasr’s groundbreaking signing of Portuguese legend Cristiano Ronaldo in December.

The Kingdom’s top domestic competition, The Saudi Pro League, is undergoing renewed interest as some of the biggest names in the game sign for local teams. 
 


Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s first year at Man United has not gone to plan

Updated 18 February 2025
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Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s first year at Man United has not gone to plan

  • Ratcliffe said his investment was “just the beginning of our journey to take Manchester United back to the top of English, European and world football”
  • “Fans should not be paying the price for previous bad ownership & bad management,” Manchester United Supporters Trust posted on X

MANCHESTER: It’s been a year since one of Britain’s richest men bought into its most famous soccer team and vowed to bring the good times back.
So far, it hasn’t gone to plan for Manchester United or Jim Ratcliffe.
The record 20-time English champion are languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League, losing vast sums of money every year and facing fan unrest.
Even head coach Ruben Amorim said recently that this might be the worst team in the club’s storied history.
That’s not all on Ratcliffe, the billionaire owner of petrochemicals giant INEOS, but it has been a rocky start since he paid $1.3 billion for an initial 25 percent stake in United and assumed control of their soccer operations.
There have been high profile hirings and firings, brutal cost cutting, a hike in ticket prices and new lows on the field for a team that had been in decline for more than a decade before he became minority owner.
While there was triumph in the FA Cup last year, that success has been overshadowed by supporter protests, job losses, unconvincing transfers and humbling defeats.
Bold plans
Ratcliffe said his investment was “just the beginning of our journey to take Manchester United back to the top of English, European and world football.”
Those ambitions feel further away now than they have in decades, with United 15th in the standings and closer to the relegation zone than the top six after a woeful campaign. Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Tottenham was the 12th in the league this season and an eighth under Amorim, who only took charge in November.
Amorim said: “I have a lot of problems, my job is so hard, but I am here to continue my job to the next week with my beliefs.”
Major overhaul
He was one of a number of key hires made as part of Ratcliffe’s overhaul of United’s soccer operations.
Omar Berrada was lured away from Manchester City to become CEO and Dan Ashworth left Newcastle to take up the role of sporting director. Jason Wilcox, formerly director of City’s academy, became technical director.
Key figures at Ratcliffe’s Ineos Sport, Dave Brailsford and Jean-Claude Blanc, were appointed to the board and Amorim became the final piece of a new leadership team after former manager Erik ten Hag was fired in October.
But that restructuring has been far from a smooth process.
Ten Hag was fired three months after being handed a one-year contract extension with United having lost four of their opening nine league games.
Ashworth left the club less than six months after taking up his role, and after months of negotiations to take him away from Newcastle.
They were expensive missteps.
In total it cost United 10.4 million pounds ($13.09 million) to pay off Ten Hag and his staff and another 11 million pounds ($13.85 million) to trigger Amorim’s release from Sporting Lisbon.
It was reported it cost between 2 and 3 million pounds ($2.5-3.78 million) to hire Ashworth, who spent five months on gardening leave during negotiations with Newcastle.
Cost cutting
Those numbers make uncomfortable reading at a time when United has implemented cost-saving initiatives that they said included staff redundancies of around 250 roles. More could be on the way, according to reports.
In October it emerged that managerial great Alex Ferguson was not beyond the reach of those measures. He will step down from his lucrative role as club ambassador at the end of the season.
In addition to cuts, United raised their lowest-priced tickets to 66 pounds ($81) partway through the season, up from 40 pounds ($49).
They defended that decision by telling fans it could not sustain their current financial losses and were in danger of breaching league rules if they did not act. United reported losses last year of 113.2 million pounds ($140 million).
“We will get back to a cash positive position as soon as possible and we will have to make some difficult choices to get there,” they said in a letter to fans.
Fan protests
That explanation has not gone down well with supporters.
“Fans should not be paying the price for previous bad ownership & bad management,” Manchester United Supporters Trust posted on X. “The supporters bring far more value than the simple collective ticket revenue.”
Supporters spent years trying to drive out the American Glazer family, which is still majority owner, and there continues to be anger toward them after Ratcliffe’s investment.
There have been jeers for the team while United’s performances on the field have continued to slide.
New lows
Ratcliffe’s first season as co-owner saw United endure their worst league campaign in 34 years when they finished in eighth place.
The end of his first full season could be even worse.
The last time they lost 12 of their first 25 games in a league season was in the 1973-74 campaign when they were relegated from the top flight.
Transfer strategy
United have spent around $260 million on players in the two transfer windows under Ratcliffe, but the squad still looks well short of the quality required to challenge for the title.
Forward Joshua Zirkzee has struggled to adapt to the Premier League and defender Leny Yoro missed a large part of the season through injury.
The pressure of complying with the league’s financial rules has placed uncertainty on United’s ability to spend big in the summer to bring in players to suit Amorim’s preferred system, and there is unlikely to be a quick fix.
Stadium rebuild
Ratcliffe wants a world class stadium, either by way of redeveloping United’s iconic Old Trafford or building one from new.
His plans, which include an ambitious redevelopment of the surrounding area, have been backed by the UK government. Financing them, however, is another issue and it is not yet clear where that money will come from.
The modernization of United’s Carrington training ground is well underway after 50 million pounds ($63 million) of investment.
The future
United haven’t lifted the league title since Ferguson’s last season in 2013 and behind the scenes the focus is on winning it for a record-extending 21st time. But with Liverpool on course to equal United’s haul of 20 this season, it is the club’s great rival from Merseyside that could set that new bar first.
Ratcliffe is a hugely successful businessman but, as he is discovering, that does not guarantee success in soccer.


Bebeto’s baby Mattheus Oliveira now chasing success at UAE’s Al-Nasr

Updated 18 February 2025
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Bebeto’s baby Mattheus Oliveira now chasing success at UAE’s Al-Nasr

  • The player made famous years ago by his father’s iconic goal celebration spoke to Arab News about the UAE move and his friendship with Vinicius Jr.

LONDON: There is nothing atypical about a father going to watch his son play football, even when it is thousands of kilometers from home. What is a little more unusual, however, is when the team is Khor Fakkan and the father is one of the greatest Brazilian players of all time.

In early January, the 7,500-capacity Saqr bin Mohammad Al-Qassimi Stadium hosted Bebeto, whose glittering 20-year career included star turns on the pitches of iconic grounds such as the Maracana, Camp Nou and the Bernabeu.

The legendary Brazilian striker was in town to watch his son Mattheus Oliviera, who put in his best display yet for Khor Fakkan — setting up two goals in a 5-2 victory over Baniyas.

Mattheus, in his first season in the UAE Pro League, has since joined Al-Nasr — making a switch this week that sees him trade a relegation battle for a fight for third place and a spot in the AFC Champions League 2 group stage.

The winger ended nearly a decade-long spell in Portuguese football to move to the UAE last summer.

“It is completely new for me but I’m liking the football here so far,” Mattheus told Arab News in an exclusive interview. “It’s difficult with the heat but I am enjoying how different it is and the people are very warm here in the UAE.”

Mattheus’ decision to swap Portugal for the Gulf came after he sought advice from his brother-in-law Carlos Eduardo.

The midfielder was an influential player for Al-Hilal, Shabab Al-Ahli and Al-Ahli Jeddah before returning to Brazil, where he won a historic Copa Libertadores title with Botafogo last November.

“I spoke with him a lot when I was in Brazil last summer,” Mattheus revealed. “I wanted to know about the country, the league and of course the culture.

“He said a lot of good things to me so it helped me decide to sign the contract. I spoke with my family too and we agreed it was time for a new project in our lives.”

Of course, Mattheus also consulted his father. The 30-year-old midfielder has followed in the footsteps of many Brazilian players who have made the UAE Pro League their home — though Bebeto is not one of them.

Bebeto — whose 35 goals for the Brazil national team are only surpassed by Zico, Romario, Ronaldo, Pele and Neymar — did play in the Gulf, but it was for Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ittihad. The Jeddah giants were the final club of his illustrious career.

“We lived in Saudi for a few months. I was probably about 8 years old,” Mattheus recalled.

“I can really remember him playing at Al-Ittihad, it was the last six months of his career. It’s funny now that I’m back here in the region.”

It is not the first time that Mattheus’ career path has crossed his father’s. In Brazil, the attacking midfielder came through the youth system at Flamengo, where Bebeto scored most of his goals in domestic football.

It was here that Mattheus was first alerted to the ability of another, younger player in Flamengo’s academy.

“The first time I saw Vinicius Jr. he was around 9 years old; by the time he was 12, you already knew that he was a special player,” Mattheus said.

“He was very fast and very confident. He can lose the ball 20 times in a game but he will try 50 more times to make things happen and one he’s going to score for sure.

“I’m very happy for him because he’s my friend. I know him and I know his family. We had a good relationship and he’s a very humble guy. He is playing for Real Madrid in the top of the world but is the same guy he was as a kid.

“What he did last year and he continued to do this year is completely amazing and it has been great to see because I know he deserves this.”

Vinicius Jr. was snapped up by Real Madrid at the age of 18 but for Mattheus, the move to Europe came at a slightly later age.

After finding the label of “Bebeto’s son” tough to deal with at Flamengo, a 21-year-old Mattheus — by that time a Brazil under-20 international —initially went on loan to Portuguese side Estoril and later moved to Sporting in 2021.

“In Brazil it was very difficult to be his son because he’s a legend of the game there,” Mattheus said.

“They were comparing me the whole time and you hear people saying ‘you are only here at Flamengo and you are only going to the national team because you are Bebeto’s son.’

“It was the main reason I wanted to go to Europe because I didn’t want those comparisons; I think the whole experience made me grow up faster.

“But to me it will always be a blessing to have Bebeto as my father. I’ve had my own personal coach, a legend of the game, teaching me the right things to do on the pitch.”

It was on the pitch that Bebeto created one of football’s most iconic moments during the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the US.

After scoring Brazil’s second goal against Netherlands in the quarterfinal, Bebeto delighted the crowd at Dallas’ Cotton Bowl with a ‘baby rocking’ celebration — along with teammates Romario and Mazinho.

It was an instinctive, emotional tribute to Mattheus, who had been born two days earlier.

“It’s completely crazy because I travel a lot with my family and everywhere we go, people look at me and say to him, ‘this is the kid you did the celebration for?’ It was 30 years ago and people are still doing it to him now.

“To him, the celebration was a natural thing to do because when my brother and my sister were born, he was there to get them in his arms. When he was playing in the World Cup, he wasn’t there with my mother, so he did this. I love that he did it.”

Mattheus still has the photo of the celebration hanging above his bed at his family home in Brazil, but the midfielder has now forged his own path in football.

At Sporting, he counted Rafael Leao and Bruno Fernandes as friends and teammates, and played under current Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim.

In the UAE he emerged as a key creative force for Khor Fakkan, earning the move to Al-Nasr for the rest of the 2024-25 season. Still, Mattheus knows that whatever his circumstances and wherever in the world he plays, his father will always be on hand to support him.

“After the game (against Baniyas in January), we went back to my house and he’s still giving me advice. I think it’s the most beautiful thing to play a game of football and have him talk to me about it afterwards.

“My dad was a football player; he made history in football. I think it was in my blood to play this game and it is something special. It is a gift.”


Without Ronaldo, Al-Nassr draws 0-0 at Persepolis in last AFC Champions League group game

Updated 18 February 2025
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Without Ronaldo, Al-Nassr draws 0-0 at Persepolis in last AFC Champions League group game

  • The club had already secured a place in the round of 16, finishing third in the West group behind fellow Saudi clubs Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal

After leaving Cristiano Ronaldo at home, Al-Nassr drew 0-0 away against Iranian club Persepolis on Monday in the last round of the AFC Champions League Elite group stage.
The Saudi Arabian team had already secured a place in the round of 16 of the continental competition and coach Stefano Pioli took a weakened team to Tehran.
Al-Nassr finished third in the West group behind fellow Saudi Arabian clubs Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal. The top eight advance from each of the two 12-team groups, divided into eastern and western geographic zones.
Al-Ahli beat Al-Gharafa of Qatar 4-2 with former Premier League players Ivan Toney, Riyad Mahrez and Roberto Firmino all scoring, along with Brazilian winger Galeno.
Also, Pakhtakor of Uzbekistan defeated Qatar’s Al-Sadd 2-1 to move into the second round.


Barcelona returns to top of La Liga with 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano

Updated 18 February 2025
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Barcelona returns to top of La Liga with 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano

  • The defeat ended Rayo nine-game unbeaten streak that stretched back to Dec 7

BARCELONA, Spain: Barcelona returned to the top of the Spanish league on goal difference on Monday after Robert Lewandowski’s first-half penalty secured a 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano.
The Catalan club took advantage of weekend slip-ups by Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid to move onto 51 points, the same as Madrid and a point clear of Atlético.
Madrid drew 1-1 at Osasuna on Saturday and Atletico was held by the same score at home by Celta Vigo.
Barcelona took the lead after 27 minutes when Pathe Ciss brought down Íñigo Martínez in the box, and a penalty was awarded after a video review. Lewandowski sent the keeper the wrong way from the spot.
Both sides had chances to score after that.
Augusto Batalla saved well from Lamine Yamal, who was playing the 100th game of his career, while at the other end Jorge De Frutos had the ball in the net for Rayo only to see it ruled out for offside.
De Frutos was always dangerous for Rayo but as the game went on the home side took control as it extended its unbeaten run to 12 matches.
The defeat ended Rayo nine-game unbeaten streak that stretched back to Dec 7.


Inside Ittihad: How club CEO oversaw an on-pitch revolution at Jeddah giants

Updated 17 February 2025
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Inside Ittihad: How club CEO oversaw an on-pitch revolution at Jeddah giants

  • In the final part of a series about the current Saudi Pro League leaders, Arab News spoke to Domingos Soares Oliveira about the club’s transformation since his arrival in 2023

Australia: When Domingos Soares Oliveira first walked through the doors at Al-Ittihad, on Oct. 1, 2023, the challenge in front of him was immense.

By that stage, the league had already attracted some of the world’s best talent as it began its rapid transformation. But the off-field operation had yet to catch up to the on-field capabilities. In some ways, the cart had been put before the horse.

The players had been signed without the requisite level of infrastructure, both physical and organisational, that they were accustomed to back in Europe. Quite hastily a new training headquarters was built at their training ground to bring the club up to the minimum standard required for an elite club in 2024.

Oliveira’s job as new CEO, therefore, was not only to transform the entire off-field operation, but to do so at a pace that allowed them to catch up with the ambition being shown on the pitch.

Everything was urgent. Everything was a priority. At the same time, he had to learn and adapt to his new surroundings and a new football culture, having spent his entire career in the more familiar surrounds of European football, spending close to 20 years with Portuguese giants Benfica before accepting the job with Al-Ittihad.

While the differences between the structures were vast, the passion for the game remained the same.

“There’re a lot of things that are different between clubs in Saudi and in our case, with Al-Ittihad, compared to Europe,” the 64-year-old told Arab News.

“But there’s something that is very similar, which is the passion from the fans. I’ve been in different parts of the globe, you have countries who are somehow trying to engage with the population around football, but there’s not a culture around football.

“But here, you have it, because you can see kids playing in the street in the morning or in the evening. You can see the passion in the stadiums. In our case, you have 60,000 people going to the matches. So, there’re a lot of similarities in the way people live football.”

But, as he explained, that is where the similarities end, which only underscores the size of the challenge that awaited Oliveira, one he described as the biggest of his career.

When he started, he estimates there were about 100 employees. Today he estimates that number at more than 300, which highlights the rapid rate of organisational growth that has taken place.

“The way clubs were organised,” he explained, “I don’t like to call it amateur, because, of course, coaches and players, have always been for the last, I would say, five decades, professionals. But in terms of organisation, it would rely very much on the people that were elected every year.

“So, there was not an organisation in the different departments, including football, the way we see in Europe with clubs organised in terms of having a proper scouting department, proper strategy and academies.

“When I joined the club, there was not a CFO (chief financial officer), there was not a sporting director, there was not a commercial director, there was not another sports manager.

“So the challenge since we saw the PIF (Public Investment Fund) acquisition of the four big clubs here in Saudi, the challenge was a big transformation from, let’s say, this way of organising things based on passion to something much more professional, which we have in place right now.”

He likened the job to that of a startup, albeit one with 97 years of history behind it.

“Following the PIF acquisition, in terms of strategy, in terms of value creation initiatives, in terms of defining KPIs, (key performance indicators) in terms of governance, in terms of compliance, we were a little bit like a startup,” he said.

“I always say we are a startup that is 97 years old, but we were like a startup. But inside an organisation like PIF, we need to prepare everything in terms of policies, in terms of procedures, in terms of strategy to fulfill the PIF requirements.

“We are not treated in a different way from a telecom company or from an airline company, the rules that we have to implement, the mechanisms that we have to implement, the reporting that we have to implement, the different committees we have inside the club, everything has to be done according to the PIF standards.”

Most urgent was an overhaul of the structures around the first team and the wider football department, which was made more challenging by the difficulties of the season, with the team struggling on the field, which led to Nuno Espirito Santo being replaced by Marcello Gallardo, who was then replaced at season’s end by Laurent Blanc.

But the structures that Oliveira had in mind were to exist regardless of who was in the hot seat; a system that remained consistent even were the club to change coaches.

The experienced Ramon Planes, a veteran of European football with the likes of Tottenham, Barcelona and Real Betis, was appointed as sporting director and given the remit of overseeing the entire football operation, from the first team to youth development and scouting.

Planes, Oliveira and the head coach, which this year is Frenchman Blanc, form the club’s sporting committee, with oversight of the club’s key football decisions, which include recruitment.

Where Planes led, others followed, with key personnel from Barcelona following him to Jeddah, including managing director, Franc Carbó, who was appointed head of strategy and football operations with Al-Ittihad.

Given Planes’ experience in Europe, particularly with Barcelona where he had an intimate insight into their famed youth development systems, it is no surprise to see Al-Ittihad adopt a similar strategy.

In the off-season the club targeted young Saudi players, completing the permanent moves for Faisal Al-Ghamdi (since loaned out to Beerschot) and Saad Al-Mousa, while their signing of Barcelona B star, Unai Hernandez, in January was a window into the future, one which is focused very much on youth development, according to Oliveira.

“We cannot only rely on players coming from abroad, because it’s not sustainable,” he said.

“It’s great that we can bring players like Karim Benzema or (N’Golo) Kante or Fabinho or Moussa Diaby or (Predrag) Rajkovic. We have very, very good international players (and) we want to keep some of them, but in terms of sustainability for the future, we need to develop the Saudi players.

“If we want to do something as a Kingdom, if we want to do something really relevant at the (2034) World Cup, it’s now that we have to start immediately developing this concept of having the best young Saudis trained the proper way.

“So, when you ask me about the long-term vision, that’s my long-term vision; it’s about having Saudi players that can feed the national team.”

Increasing on-field and off-field opportunities for those in Saudi Arabia is a key theme for Oliveira, who spoke frequently about his “Saudi-isation” push across the business.

“Part of my job is to increase the ‘Saudi-isation’ of the club,” he said.

“Our challenge at this stage in the football department is, in the coming two years, we need to increase the ‘Saudi-isation’ inside the football department, because at this stage, we rely very much on people coming from different countries.

“But we need to increase the Saudis, and we are doing this. We are bringing more Saudis in to train them so that they can run the football department in the future.”

Speaking of the future at Al-Ittihad, Oliveira, who cited increasing commercial revenues as a key area for improvement, would not put a limit on what was possible, but outlined more of his vision for Saudi Arabia’s oldest football club and again it came back to youth development.

“We need to develop the young Saudi players in a way that this club, in the future, can rely mostly on Saudi players,” he said.

“I do believe that in terms of commercial activities, in terms of TV rights, there will be a boost in terms of increasing the revenues that will allow the club to be financially sustainable. This will allow the club, in the next decade, to continue chasing the best players around the globe.

“But at the same time, we need Saudi players, different profiles in terms of Saudi players, and for that, you need to work with them at younger ages.

“Once they are under the Ittihad umbrella, we can take care of their education together with the parents. We can take care of their nutrition, we can take care of their physical development, mental development, competitive development. You can only do this if you have a very good youth strategy and very good people inside the youth department.

He continued: “I know that if we are able to put the best training facilities, considering that we’ll have the land for the new headquarters, together with a proper youth strategy, we will be able to have a gigantic centre of excellence here in Ittihad, which in my case, I deeply believe that we can fill the Saudi national team with probably the majority of their players, because we have the skills, we have the strategy, (and) we have the procedures to develop this strategy.

“If you ask me about 10 years from now, I want to develop the Saudi players the best way I can. And for that, I need facilities, I need a strategy, I need procedures, and I need something that we already have in Saudi, which is the raw material we have at the younger ages.

“We just need to take care of them and to develop them the right way.”