The Saudi Arabia head coach post is one of the hottest seats in the world football. Since 2010, as many as nine tacticians have tried their luck at this job, yet none of them could stay for more than two years. The chaos reached its peak last autumn, when Bert van Marwijk stepped down just five days after the Green Falcons booked their ticket to the World Cup. The Dutchman was replaced by the Argentinian Edgardo Bauza, who lasted just two months - and then his fellow countryman Juan Antonio Pizzi took the job.

Merry-go-round

Van Marwijk, a renowned coach who had led the Dutch national team to the second place in the 2010 World Cup, took charge of Saudi Arabia in September 2015. Under him, the team played a solid qualifying campaign, as the second place behind Japan in AFC Group B saw them progressing to the final stage for the first time since 2006. While that result was definitely a success and the team looked solid and consistent, it was quite surprising to see van Marwijk almost immediately quitting his job instead of celebrating.

But obviously the Dutchman had his reasons not to extend his contract which expired after the qualifying campaign. First, the Saudi Arabian Football Federation sacked some members of his coaching staff. Second, they wanted van Marwijk to permanently reside in Saudi Arabia, which was unacceptable for the 65-year-old coach. And third, he was not happy that many Saudi people tried to interfere with his job in different ways. Van Marwijk wanted to continue his work, and the federation were basically looking for the same solution, yet the parties failed to come to an agreement.

Unfortunate Bauza

Then Saudi Arabia brought in Bauza, luring him directly from the UAE national team. The Argentinian was expected to lead the Green Falcons into the World Cup, yet his stint at the team lasted only two months. During that period, Saudi Arabia played five friendly matches, winning two of them and losing three. The quality of their game left much to be desired, the Spanish-speaking Bauza struggled to get his message across to his Arabic footballers, and in November, just a few days before the World Cup draw, the bosses of Saudi Arabia federation decided to sack the Argentinian.

After that, they made an attempt to bring van Marwijk back, but the Dutchman turned the offer down. Vicente Del Bosque, Gheorghe Hagi, Guus Hiddink, Luiz Felipe Scolari were reported to get an offer as well, but none of them reached an agreement with the Saudis. And the federation ultimately found another solution, appointing Juan Antonio Pizzi. The Argentinian had never played or coached in the Middle East before, yet he has achieved some good results in South America. In particular, the Chile national team under his guidance won the 2016 Copa America, and reached the Confederations Cup final the following year. However, Pizzi failed to lead his team to the World Cup and immediately resigned after the Chileans lost a chance to qualify.

Al-Sahlawi’s impact

Most Saudi Arabian footballers play for clubs in their home country and are hardly known outside of it. However, this winter as many as nine of them moved to Spanish clubs on loan as a part of the partnership between the Saudi football authorities and La Liga. Villarreal, Levante, Leganes, Rayo Vallecano, Numancia, Valladolid and Sporting Gijon have all received players from the Middle East, who needed to gain some more international experience before the World Cup.

At the same time, the national team’s leading striker Mohammad Al-Sahlawi agreed to train three weeks at Manchester United, which should help him to shapren his skills. The 30-year-old did a very good job last year, as he became the joint top scorer of the World Cup qualification with 16 goals - together with Poland’s Robert Lewandowski and UAE’s Ahmed Khalil, and more than Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi.

Saudi Arabia have previously played at four World Cups, but advanced from the group only once, in 1994. Now the Green Falcons are in a group containing the hosts Russia, Uruguay and Egypt, and while it will definitely be tough, they hope to surprise the football world and reach the Last 16.