Al-Ittihad Club, the reigning champion of the Saudi Professional Football League, announced on Wednesday the appointment of Portuguese coach Sérgio Conceição as the team’s head coach with a contract lasting until 2028, replacing the French coach Laurent Blanc.

The announcement was made via a video published by the club on X platform, featuring a statement from Conceição saying, “I am Sérgio Conceição, I came to make glory with Al-Ittihad.”

The club revealed the technical staff members including assistant coaches João Costa and Fábio Moura, goalkeeping coaches Diamantino Figueiredo and Vedran Runje, technical analyst Siramana Dembélé, and fitness coach Bruno Matos.

Al-Ittihad currently ranks third in the league with 9 points from 4 matches and will play its next match against Al-Fayha on October 17.

At the end of September, Al-Ittihad announced the termination of its contract with Laurent Blanc and his assistant staff.

The dismissal came one day after Al-Ittihad lost 0-2 to Al-Nassr in the Saudi league, which caused the defending champion to drop to third place in the standings.

Hassan Khalifa took over as interim coach with the help of Ivan Carrasco, the under-21 team coach.

Conceição was dismissed from coaching AC Milan on May 29 after a disappointing season where the team finished ninth in the Italian Serie A, missing European competitions for the first time since 2019.

This was despite a good start with Milan after his appointment in December last year, leading the team to win the Italian Super Cup in only his second match.