Without a manager: Al-Ahli Saudi reveals its final friendly before the new season | Goal.com

Published on 04 Aug 2026 | Reading time: 2 minutes

Al-Ahli of Saudi Arabia have revealed the last friendly matches they will play before the start of the new 2026-2027 football season, despite the absence of a permanent head coach to lead them at present.

Jaissle handed in his resignation as Al-Ahli boss last Thursday to take charge of English club Newcastle United, and "Al-Raqi" have yet to land a replacement.

The club took to their official "X" account on Tuesday to announce a match against Saudi side Al-Ettifaq on Wednesday, their last friendly before the season kicks off.

Portuguese coach Rui Santos will take the reins for that game. He is leading the team on a temporary basis until a new head coach arrives to succeed Jaissle.

The Al-Ettifaq fixture replaces a game against Abha, originally scheduled for Thursday. That match was cancelled after the Saudi League schedule set the meeting between the two teams for the second round on 22 August this year.

This will be the seventh friendly "Al-Raqi" have played before the new season, following six matches at their overseas training camp in Austria and Portugal over the past month. They won just one of those, an 8-0 rout of Austria's Saalfelden.

Elsewhere, "Al-Raqi" lost three matches, against Germany's Holstein Kiel, Portugal's Vitoria Guimaraes and Portimonense, and drew goalscoring games with both Portugal's Rio Ave and England's Fulham.

Al-Ahli officially begin the new season on 13 August this year, when they face Al-Diriyah in the first round of the Saudi Roshn League.

Two prizes are on their radar. They want the Saudi League title that has eluded them since 2016, and they want to retain the AFC Champions League Elite crown they claimed in each of the past two seasons.

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