Izuchukwu OkosiFormer head coach of the Italian national team, Roberto Mancini is on the verge of becoming the new head coach of Saudi Arabia.
The Italian-born coach who led Manchester City to winning the Premier League title in the 2012/2013 season failed to qualify his country for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Albeit the Azzuri are in the midst of a renaissance under his guidance, the pull of the Saudi Arabia Football Federation job whose clubs are flushed with billions of dollars to buy the best players in the world was arguably too good to be turned down.
Sky Sports report on Thursday morning state that Mancini is expected to lead the country to the 2026 FIFA World Cup on a pay package of £77m (€120m – €40M a year).
The deal could be closed in the next 48 hours, reports from various sources indicate.
Saudi Arabia’s national team was previously coached by Herve Renard who was in charge of the France women’s national team to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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