Al-Ittifaq Delays Saad Al-Shehri Contract Renewal Amid National Team Speculation
Al-Ittifaq have hit pause on Saad Al-Shehri’s future, choosing to wait until the end of the season before deciding whether to hand their coach a new contract, even as his name circles around the Saudi national team job.
Reports in Saudi Arabia had suggested the Saudi Arabian Football Federation opened channels with Al-Shehri over taking charge of the senior national team, succeeding Hervé Renard in the build-up to the 2026 World Cup. His agent, Rafi Al-Shahrani, publicly denied that any agreement had been reached, but the speculation has not gone away.
Against that backdrop, Al-Riyadiah revealed that Al-Ittifaq will delay renewal talks until they have a full picture of Al-Shehri’s work over the course of the campaign. The club want the season’s body of evidence, not a snapshot, before they commit.
Al-Shehri stepped into the job in January 2025, replacing Steven Gerrard, and has since built a solid, if not spectacular, record: 20 wins from 44 matches, 14 defeats and 10 draws. Enough to steady the side, enough to suggest a clear direction, but not yet enough to silence every doubt.
Club's Intentions
Inside the Eastern club, the inclination is clear. The intention, as reported, is to keep Al-Shehri in place for next season. That is the preferred scenario, the internal line. But preference and reality are not always the same thing in a league moving as fast as the Saudi Pro League.
Al-Shehri is acting as if he will stay. He has already begun shaping plans for the coming season, sitting down with the technical committee to map out what the squad needs, which contracts should be renewed and which players are likely to move on. Those are not the actions of a coach with one foot out of the door.
Yet everything hangs on one decision that is not his alone.
His agent, Al-Shahrani, has made no secret of the coach’s stance on the national team: if an official offer arrives, Al-Shehri would not hesitate to accept. That single line changes the entire dynamic. Al-Ittifaq may want continuity, but the pull of leading Saudi Arabia into a World Cup cycle is something very few domestic coaches would turn down.
Current Standing
On the pitch, the picture is mixed. Al-Ittifaq sit seventh in the Saudi Pro League table on 39 points, three points adrift of Al-Ittihad in sixth. Respectable, competitive, but still short of the upper tier that the club’s ambitions demand.
So the club wait. The federation weigh their options. And Al-Shehri, already planning one future, may yet be asked to lead another.
