LONDON: New Al-Ahli manager Pablo Guede has touched down in the Kingdom to begin his spell in charge of the Jeddah giants.
Guede signed a two-year contract in May to replace Sergei Rebrov and becomes the club’s 52nd manager. He will take charge of his first training session on Monday. The Argentine is the first South American to take charge of the club since Gustavo Alfaro held the position in 2009.
Pablo Guede arrived in Jeddah moments ago. Our new manager will lead his first training session with the team on Monday.
Welcome to Jeddah, coach! pic.twitter.com/eZrfr4dlLN— AlAhli Saudi Club (@ALAHLI_FCEN) July 6, 2018
Guede, 43, is relatively unknown outside of South America and this will be only his sixth coaching job. He started off his coaching career in Spain’s lower leagues at El Palo and has since taken two jobs in Chile and two in Argentine. He won the Supercopa Argentina with San Lorenzo in 2015 and then won three titles at Colo-Colo, the Copa Chile in 2016, the Chilean Primera Division in 2017 and the Supercopa de Chile in 2017 and 2018.
Guede will inherit a much-changed squad that finished second last season. Foreign stars Mark Milligan, Giannis Fetfatzidis, Claudemir and Leonardo all had their contracts terminated this week while Egyptian Abdallah El-Said and Spaniards Jose Manuel Jurado and Alexis Ruano have been recruited. Omar Al-Somah, Mohamed Al-Fateel and Motaz Hawsawi have all signed new deals.
Al-Ahli begin the competitive season on Aug. 7 with an Arab Club Champions Cup game against Muharraq before kicking off the Saudi Pro League season on Aug. 30 with a home game against Al-Batin
