The old feud between former Neom player Salman Al-Faraj and Italian coach Roberto Mancini has flared up once more. Years after the crisis that first pitted the pair together inside the Saudi national team, Italy fell to Belgium 2-0 at the start of their UEFA Nations League campaign.
Al-Faraj pounced on that defeat to fire off a sarcastic message aimed at Mancini via Snapchat. "Well done Belgium, they gave him a proper thrashing, this man who doesn't know how to coach yet keeps handing out instructions, meaning I was right and you were wrong", he wrote, in a direct dig at Italy's coach, who returned to lead the Azzurri after leaving the Saudi national team.
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The comment landed just after Mancini spoke about Belgium's superiority in the first half. He admitted the opponent had been the better side before Italy improved after the break, though they never managed to claw back the result. It all dragged up the row between the coach and the former Al-Hilal captain during his spell with Saudi Arabia.
Everything started in August 2023, when Mancini took charge of the Saudi national team as successor to Frenchman Hervé Renard. Al-Faraj made the squad for that October's camp, coming on as a substitute against Nigeria, then starting against Mali before limping off with injury. Matters escalated quickly.
Mancini then left Al-Faraj out of the squad for the 2023 Asian Cup in Qatar. He justified the call by claiming the player had chosen not to join the friendly matches, a version Al-Faraj flatly rejected. He insisted he had told the coach of his desire to represent his country and his passion for playing with Saudi Arabia, and he demanded the Saudi Arabian Football Federation investigate the coach's statements.
The dispute did not end with words. The case took an official turn, and the Professionalism Committee fined Salman Al-Faraj 100,000 Saudi riyals after establishing that he had expressed an unwillingness to join the national team following his call-up to the October 2023 camp, according to the reasoning behind the official decision. The file was settled administratively, even as the argument over each party's account rumbled on.
Some three years on from the start of the crisis, Al-Faraj's comment has thrust the story back under the spotlight. This time it comes from outside the national team's ranks. He found in Italy's loss to Belgium the perfect chance to needle Mancini, reviving one of the most notable rows of the Italian's time with Saudi Arabia.