Ange Postecoglou is going to coach Cristiano Ronaldo. That’s real. That’s happening.
The Australian manager signed a two-year deal with Al-Nassr on Friday, replacing Jorge Jesus just days after Jesus led the club to a Saudi Pro League title. Postecoglou has been out of work since getting fired by Nottingham Forest last season after only a handful of games. He spent the World Cup working as a pundit for ITV.
Now he’s heading to Riyadh to try to extract something meaningful from Ronaldo’s late-career chapter. Ronaldo turns 41 next February and sits at 976 career goals. The 1,000-goal mark is out there, somewhere in the distance, and Postecoglou could be the guy on the sideline when or if it happens.
Al-Nassr announced the hire with a quote Postecoglou gave when he joined Forest last fall. At all my previous clubs, it ends the same. With me and a trophy,
he said then. It didn’t work out that way at the City Ground. He was gone before the leaves changed.
But the man does have trophies. At Celtic he won a double in his first season and a treble in his second. At Tottenham he somehow won the Europa League in 2025, beating Manchester United in the final in Bilbao. That was Spurs’ first silverware in forever. It also came during a season where they finished 17th in the Premier League. He got sacked anyway. That’s an insane piece of trivia that sums up his whole career arc.
The Al-Nassr squad is not short on talent beyond Ronaldo. Sadio Mane is still there. Joao Felix too. Kingsley Coman as well. It’s a team built to win now and Postecoglou’s track record suggests he can get a group like that playing aggressive, attacking football. Whether that style translates to the Saudi league or survives the pressure of managing a star like Ronaldo is another question entirely.
His first match will be the King of Cup Champions Clash against Diriyah on August 16. That’s not a typo. That’s the actual name of the game.
Postecoglou also spent four years coaching Australia, took them to the 2014 World Cup and won the Asian Cup in 2015. He knows how to manage tournaments and big personalities. He’s about to find out if that experience covers the specific challenge of managing one of the biggest personalities in sports history while chasing a number nobody has ever reached before.
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