AI-Ittihad faces first major dressing room disharmony as stars continue to arrive
By Daily Tab24. Updated: 12: 05. Aug 24, 2023.
A report circulating in Saudi Arabian sports newspapers said Karim Benzema’s relationship with AI-Ittihad coach Nuno Espirito Santo has crashed due to transfer policy and style of play. The Saudi Pro-league team has delved into the transfer market and signing football biggest names since the arrival of Christiano Ronaldo. As being a norm, big boys in the footballing world will always want to have their say in their respective teams.
The stakes are now high in Saudi after the attraction of big names to the league. The Saudi Football Association have said the league would continue to spend more money on players. They have been often criticized for their massive financial input, and ability to convince world class players to join a league that was barely known two years ago with crazy wages.
The league is now competitive and with managers that have not managed top stars in the past, frictions will definitely start to be noticed and cracks would inevitably appear. That is the situation with Nuno Espirito Santo, who manages the most recent best footballer in the world, Karim Benzema.
Benzema was reportedly said to be dissatisfied with his coach who is not professionally managing him and some of the privileges he deserves as the world’s best player are not given to him. Astonishingly, Benzema was not given the armband of the club while being the most decorated player in the team and he saw it as lack of respect coming from his coach.
Saudi Pro-league worked hard to convince Karim Benzema to sign for the league with hope to raise the stakes of the region’s club football and cannot afford to lose a player due to a coach that is barely a world class coach. Benzema believes Nuno lacks the experience to manage players of his profile as he has spent all his life managing average players in average clubs.
Nuno was reported to have said that Benzema does not match his style of play, and doing a little or nothing to sacrifice his style of play to Benzema’s style. Often, teams are built around stars, but Nuno has a different opinion, he strongly believes that results will keep him in the business than stars would, and that motivated his choice of snubbing Benzema for the captaincy of the team.
Benzema admitted to Saad AI-Ladidh, who takes care of contracts and was the main figure that convinced Benzema to come to the league, that he was not happy with Nuno. He touched the preference of Romarinho over him and also complained about lack of respect for his profile. Benzema feels he was not initially wanted by Nuno and relied on rumors of the coach not being responsible for transfers.
It was further reported that Nuno said he was not responsible for the signing of Benzema, and had he sanctioned his signing, there won’t be frictions because he must have known what he wanted. For AI-ittihad, it’s a classical problem. They will choose between the league winning coach and their star player.
Reports have emerged the management of the club are gunning for their star player whose market value have helped raised the stakes of the club.