Saudi Arabia has reappointed Frenchman Herve Renard as manager to replace Roberto Mancini, the Gulf country’s national team announced on Saturday.

Nigeria had struggled to sign Renard as a replacement for Finidi George who resigned last June as the Super Eagles’ head coach.

But the efforts failed, even after waiting for Renard to complete his assignment as the coach of the French women’s team at Paris 2024.

The 56-year-old, who was in charge of the Saudis from 2019 to 2023, takes over from Italian Mancini who left the position as Saudi Arabia coach on Thursday by mutual agreement after 14 months in the job.

“I am back,” Renard, clad in Saudi traditional costume, said in a video published on the Saudi national team’s X social media account.

According to Reuters, Renard’s contract runs until the end of 2025 with an option to extend through the 2027 Asian Cup, the team said in a statement.

Renard had left his job with the Saudis to lead France’s women’s team at the World Cup and the Paris 2024 Olympics.

“I did not intend to leave. But when your country knock on your door, you have to respond,” he said in the video.

During his first spell, he led Saudi Arabia to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where they surprisingly beat eventual champions Argentina in their opener.

“I did not finish my story with Saudi yet. And thank God, I am back,” added the Frenchman.

He will resume his duties with the Saudis on Oct. 27, with their next World Cup qualifiers away to Australia and Indonesia in November kicking off his second stint, the team added.

Saudi Arabia are third in Group C of Asia’s third round of World Cup preliminaries with five points. They are five points adrift of group leaders Japan after four matches.

They lost 2-0 at home to Japan on Oct. 10 before being held to a scoreless draw by Bahrain five days later.

The top two in each group advance automatically to the World Cup, while the third and fourth-placed sides go into another round of preliminaries with the bottom two finishers eliminated.

South Korea footballer Hwang Ui-jo faces four years in jail after pleading guilty in court to illegally filming sexual encounters.

The former Nottingham Forest striker asked the judge to show leniency after being charged with recording himself having sex with women without their consent, a trial transcript seen by AFP said on Oct 17.

Prosecutors asked the Seoul Central District Court for a four-year jail term for the 32-year-old when they made their closing arguments in the case this week.

Hwang, who now plays for Turkish club Alanyaspor, had initially claimed he was innocent before admitting to the offences in court.

“Though he now acknowledges the wrongdoing, he had denied the allegations leading up to the trial. We question whether Hwang is sincere in his reflections… for the irreparable damage inflicted upon the victims,” prosecutors said.

Hwang said in a prepared statement to the judge: “I offer my sincerest apologies to the victims who have suffered because of my wrongdoings. I sincerely plead for the utmost leniency.”

He said he would use the incident as a “mirror of reflection” to live diligently as an athlete.

Known as “molka” in Korean, spycam videos are typically made by men who secretly film women in toilets and elsewhere, although the term can also be applied to clandestine footage of consensual sex.

The scandal came to light when his sister-in-law posted private explicit videos of Hwang in an attempt to blackmail him in June 2023. She is now serving three years in prison for blackmail.

One of the victim’s attorneys, Lee Eun-eui, welcomed the prosecutors’ demand for a four-year prison sentence.

“It is at least comforting that the prosecution is seeking a four-year imprisonment,” she told reporters after the trial, noting her client had been “deeply battered” through the entire affair.

Hwang, who has scored 19 goals in 62 appearances for South Korea, has been suspended from the national team since November 2023 when the allegations were made. He is due to be sentenced on Dec 18.

Over in Spain, Real Madrid have, for the moment at least, given their support to star forward Kylian Mbappe since the Swedish media reported that he is being investigated for alleged rape during a visit to Stockholm.

The reigning European champions, who have not commented publicly on the reports, do not appear to be overly concerned over the reports about the player who joined in summer from Paris Saint-Germain.

An internal club source, who spoke to AFP on condition of their identity not being revealed, described the accusations as “the biggest fake in the history of sport”.

On Oct 15, Real were accused of deleting Mbappe from photos they published in a promotional campaign with their jersey manufacturer Adidas.

Real told journalists the reason was simply because Mbappe’s boot sponsor is Adidas’ bitter rivals Nike.

That explanation was questioned on social media though, with many people pointing out that several players in the photos are also under contract with Nike, like Mbappe’s French international teammate Eduardo Camavinga.

In the midst of the media storm – and on the day his lawyer spoke to AFP and other French media to insist her client was “shocked” to be linked to a rape investigation – Mbappe trained with his teammates in Madrid on Oct 15.

This time, the club had no hesitation in posting photos and videos of the Frenchman.

The 25-year-old Frenchman should be available for selection for their La Liga match against hosts Celta Vigo on Oct 19, as he is said to have recovered from discomfort in his left thigh that kept him out of France’s squad for Nations League games.

With a rare few free days on his hands, Mbappe chose to go to Stockholm with a group of friends, arriving on Oct 9 and departing on Oct 11. Reports in several Swedish media say they visited a restaurant and a nightclub. Once the group had left Sweden, a woman went to police to allege she was the victim of rape.

On Oct 14, after Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet became the first media outlet to reveal that a rape probe had been opened, Mbappe slammed the report as “fake news” on his social media and alleged there was a link between the accusations and his financial dispute with his former club PSG. A hearing into the case was held on Oct 15.

“It’s becoming so predictable, the day before the hearing as if by chance,” Mbappe said on X, formerly Twitter.

A Swedish prosecutor has only confirmed that an investigation has been opened, without naming Mbappe.

His lawyer Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard told AFP on Tuesday the 2018 World Cup winner was “at ease” because “he has done nothing wrong”.

She said Mbappe had “asked my office not to leave things as they are because it is impossible to allow yourself to be slandered and defamed in this way”.

“This is why we are going to file a complaint for libel.”

-AFP

Former Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has been named the new head coach of the England national team, the country’s Football Association said in a statement on Wednesday.

The German, who is England’s third foreign manager, after Sweden’s Sven-Goran Eriksson and Italian Fabio Capello, will be assisted by Englishman Anthony Barry, the statement added.

“We are thrilled to have hired Thomas Tuchel, one of the best coaches in the world and Anthony Barry who is one of the best English coaches to support him,” FA CEO Mark Bullingham said.

Tuchel replaces Lee Carsley, England’s under-21 manager, who has been in temporary charge since the resignation of Gareth Southgate after England’s defeat by Spain in the Euro 2024 final in July.

-Reuters