RIYADH: The Saudi Arabian Football Federation announced the appointment of Nasser Larguet as technical director, who will be taking on the responsibilities previously held by Ioan Lupesco.
The Moroccan joins SAFF after spending the past three years at French club Olympique de Marseille, where he contributed as a director to the development of one of the world’s most successful youth academies.
Prior to that, Larguet led the Moroccan national team as a technical director from 2014 to 2019, achieving the first World Cup qualification in 20 years for the North African nation. During his career, he held multiple positions within renowned French youth academies, including Cannes, Rouen, Caen, Strasbourg and Le Havre.
In September 2021, SAFF announced a seven-pillar strategy that aims to position Saudi Arabia among the elite football nations by the time World Cup 2034 arrives. Larguet will be playing a central role in the execution of this strategy as he will oversee a high-performance pathway with a comprehensive plan for every Saudi footballer, starting from the age of 6 through to turning professional. This is to be obtained through optimizing the existing regional centers and developing new grade-A centers across different regions in the Kingdom.
Commenting on the appointment, Yasser Al-Misehal, SAFF president, said: “The Saudi football landscape is currently witnessing a massive transformation, as our set ambition is to become genuine contenders on the global stage.
“The hiring of Larguet builds on our success so far and represents an important milestone in the path we are forging. His vast experience in youth development will provide us with the necessary guidance to develop our infrastructure and upgrade our processes to untap the great potential of Saudi youth.”
The Saudi national team is set to take part in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, in what will be the Green Falcons’ sixth World Cup participation. This follows consistent improvement shown by the Saudi national men’s team over the past few years, moving up the FIFA ranking from 70 in 2019 to 49 this month.
“The transformation is already showing results, as we have opened a total of 22 regional centers across the country, which will support us in scouting and developing Saudi talent. Our national teams are also enjoying unprecedented success at every level, as the U23 Olympic team were present at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for the first time after 24 years, and our men’s team just delivered the best Saudi World Cup qualification campaign ever,” said Al-Misehal.
“We have also established our women’s team, and they are already starting to show a lot of promise. We are moving forward with a strong foundation, but we expect Nasser’s experience and know-how to help us further accelerate our progress,” he added.
The new technical director will lead the efforts to construct a new uniform coaching curriculum tailored to Saudi strengths, which will be adopted in developing and training Saudi national coaches. These coaches will in turn play a key part in driving the success of the Saudi youth structure program. In his new role, Larguet will also be leveraging his network to establish and activate international partnerships that can support Saudi football development.