Saudi club Al Fateh announced the appointment of Croatian Slaven Bilic as head coach of his first football team. Al Fateh was 6th classified in the last edition of the first league of Arabia. Bilic replaces the Greek Giorgos Donis and has already traveled to Austria, where the Arab team is carrying out its pre-season.
The Balkan, who was in charge of English Watford until a few months ago, will direct, among others, the Spanish Cristian Tello and Fran Vélez, who have been a member of Al Fateh for a few months. Vélez, a central defender from Tarragona, joined the Saudi club last summer, coming from Panathinaikos in Greece. Tello went through Los Angeles FC of California before leaving for Arabia in January. He had spent five years at Betis.
mythical defense of Croatia, with which he achieved third place in the 98 World Cup, Bilic began his coaching career under Arsene Wenger at Arsenal and then Italian Marcelo Lippi. He later he took charge of the Croatian Under-21, from 2004 to 2006, and led to the absolute to the quarterfinals of Euro 2008. His tenure as national team coach ended in 2012.
Subsequently, he has accumulated extensive experience in clubs that goes through Russian Lokomotiv Moscow, Turkish Besiktas and West Ham United in the Premier League, from 2015 to 2017. Bilic has experience in the Saudi Arabian league, since he coached Al Ittihad, Karim Benzema’s current club, in 2018. He then went on to manage West Bromwich Albion in 2019, Beijing Sinobo Guoan in China in 2021 and his latest Watford venture.