{"id":31358,"date":"2026-04-23T22:59:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/23\/saudi-arabia-announces-change-of-coach-with-donis-replacing-leonard-ahead-of-world-cup\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T22:59:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:59:23","slug":"saudi-arabia-announces-change-of-coach-with-donis-replacing-leonard-ahead-of-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/23\/saudi-arabia-announces-change-of-coach-with-donis-replacing-leonard-ahead-of-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia announces change of coach with Donis replacing Leonard ahead of World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Saudi Arabia officially announced a change of manager on Thursday, sacking Herv\u00e9 Renard and replacing him with Georgios Donis, less than two months before the start of the season. <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">world cup<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Donis, 56, a former Greece international, joins from Al Khaleej, one of several clubs in the Saudi Professional League that he has coached.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He has extensive experience in the league and has improved his ability to adapt quickly in recent posts,&#8221; the Saudi Football Federation said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia opens <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">Group H matches at the World Cup<\/span> They will play against Uruguay on June 15th. They will also play against Spain and Cape Verde.<\/p>\n<p>Donis was a long-time Panathinaikos midfielder and also played in England for Blackburn, Sheffield United and Huddersfield. He also coached Panathinaikos and Maccabi Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n<p>This appointment marks the end of Mr. Renard&#8217;s second spell. <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">Return to Riyadh in October 2024<\/span> Appointed as Roberto Mancini&#8217;s successor.<\/p>\n<p>The two-time African Cup of Nations winner was under pressure after a 4-0 loss to Egypt and a 2-1 loss to Serbia in a friendly.<\/p>\n<p>Contains Renard&#8217;s first spell <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">Saudi Arabia&#8217;s famous 2-1 victory<\/span> Defeat eventual champion Argentina at the 2022 World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP World Cup coverage: <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/fifa-world-cup<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/saudi-arabia-coach-donis-renard-85286bc72d69681ae4c7fd6e2cbe51e9\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saudi Arabia officially announced a change of manager on Thursday, sacking Herv\u00e9 Renard and replacing him with Georgios Donis, less than two months before the start of the season. world cup. Donis, 56, a former Greece international, joins from Al Khaleej, one of several clubs in the Saudi Professional League that he has coached. &#8220;He<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Saudi Arabia announces change of coach with Donis replacing Leonard ahead of World Cup - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/23\/saudi-arabia-announces-change-of-coach-with-donis-replacing-leonard-ahead-of-world-cup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saudi Arabia announces change of coach with Donis replacing Leonard ahead of World Cup - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Saudi Arabia officially announced a change of manager on Thursday, sacking Herv\u00e9 Renard and replacing him with Georgios Donis, less than two months before the start of the season. world cup. 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