A coach and sporting director together: Al-Ahly begins its corrective revolution from La Liga

Saudi club Al-Ahli have begun a corrective revolution starting from the Spanish league, in order to fix their course in the current 2026-2027 football season, following a series of negative results they have suffered recently.

The Saudi newspaper "Okaz" reports that Al-Ahli have opened negotiations with Spain's Miguel Angel Tena, Villarreal's director of football, over a move to become their sporting director.

The Saudi club are hunting for a new sporting director to succeed Portugal's Rui Pedro Baraz, who was dismissed from the role earlier this season.

According to the report, Al-Ahli have laid out their vision and future project to Tena, hoping he can steer the club forward. No final agreement has been reached as yet.

Tena is not the only name in the frame, either. Al-Ahli are weighing up several other candidates before making their final call.

Who is Miguel Angel Tena, the candidate to lead Al-Ahli?

His ties to Villarreal run deep. Tena arrived some 23 years ago as a player, joining the youth team from Valencia, though he lasted just a single season.

He left for Racing Ferrol in 2004 and turned out for a host of Spanish clubs before returning there a decade later, spending his final year on the pitch with them before hanging up his boots for good.

With Racing Ferrol he also launched his career off the pitch, and here's the curious part: he began as a coach. Tena stayed with them between 2015 and 2017 before taking charge of Villarreal's under-19s in 2018.

Two years on, he became head coach of Villarreal's third team. One season later came the biggest step of his career: his appointment as the club's director of football.

Across five years, Tena stamped a clear philosophy on the role. He insisted more than once that his job went beyond signings, extending to creating the right working environment.

Build the person before the player. That was his aim, readying each one for a professional life on the football pitch.

Tena also pressed the need to develop coaches capable of managing a team and dealing with people in the best possible way, not simply schooling players in the academies as had always been the custom.

That particular philosophy helped Villarreal produce a string of outstanding talents in recent years, among them Alex Baena and goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen.

A sporting director and coach at the same time

Here's another twist. Tena never confined himself to the sporting director's desk at Villarreal, drawing on nearly six years as a head coach before moving into administration in 2021.

Even while running recruitment, he was called upon as head coach on a temporary basis twice, in September 2023 and then again in November of the same year.

The club also handed their sporting director the reins of the Villarreal youth team last season.

So Tena looks more than capable of serving as Al-Ahli's sporting director while stepping in as head coach on a temporary basis should the need arise.

All this comes with Al-Ahli's supporters demanding the sacking of Netherlands boss Marino Pusic, the first-team head coach, over a run of poor results this season.

Pusic took the Al-Ahli job last August, replacing Germany's Matthias Jaissle, who left suddenly to lead Newcastle United.

Since taking charge of the Jeddah side, Pusic has overseen 18 matches, winning 11, drawing two and losing five.