Al Nassr is about to fire the coach because of Ronaldo

Kooora newspaper, citing internal sources Al Nassr, said that the team's leadership is considering whether to fire Garcia immediately, or wait until after the decisive match with Al Hilal on Tuesday, April 18 to decide. Club president Musalli Al-Muammar and his associates will finalize the plan in the next 48 hours.

Okaz newspaper even said that Al Nassr decided to fire Garcia on the evening of April 11, and the official announcement will be announced by the team in the next few hours. They will appoint temporary coach Ivo Milic to lead the team until a new coach is found. Milic has just helped U19 Al Nassr win the Saudi League youth tournament, even though he has not received the highest-level coach certificate Pro.

Garcia is 59 years old, helped Lille win Ligue 1 and won the French Cup in 2011. The French coach's contract with Al Nassr will expire at the end of June 2024. If the contract is canceled with him, the team will have to compensate. Garcia led the team 26 games, won 18, drew five and lost three. Al Nassr is second in the Saudi League table, three points less than Al Ittihad. They were also eliminated by Al Ittihad himself in the semi-finals of the National Super Cup. As for the King Cup, Garcia's army has reached the semi-finals and will meet Al Wehda on April 24.

According to the Arab newspaper Nogoom Masrya, Ronaldo is the reason why coach Garcia is on the verge of losing his job. "Coach Garcia could not control the tension after the 0-0 draw with Al Feiha on April 9, and criticized the players including Ronaldo," the newspaper added.

In an interview after the Al Feiha draw, Garcia said he was "not satisfied with the performance of the Al Nassr players". "I asked to learn a game like the 5-0 win over Al Adalah on April 4, but they couldn't do it," he added.

After the game, Ronaldo also expressed frustration when he did not shake Garcia's hand, and criticized the opponent for not wanting to play by buying time. He is said to ask Al Nassr to recruit three more superstars, otherwise he may leave.

Kooora is an Arabic-language football website, appearing in 2002, with 96.5 million visits in March 2023, according to SimilarWeb. Okaz is the leading Saudi newspaper, founded in 1960, attracting 3.2 million hits. And Nogoom Masrya is an Arabic news site, launched in 2009 and reached 15.3 million hits.