Former Inter & Lazio coach Inzaghi to leave Al-Hilal after just one season

Simone Inzaghi is set to leave Al-Hilal after just one season in Saudi Arabia, despite having signed a two-year contract worth €26 million per season last summer.

The Italian coach’s departure appears imminent, with sources in Saudi Arabia reporting, via TuttoMercatoWeb, that an exit is all but confirmed once Al-Hilal’s final Saudi Pro League fixture is completed.

A change of ownership at the club is understood to have contributed to the decision, alongside scrutiny over several expensive summer signings that failed to deliver the expected returns, most notably Darwin Nunez.

The development puts Inzaghi back into the European coaching pool after less than a year away, with the question now being whether he will seek an immediate return to Italian football or look elsewhere.

In recent comments, Inzaghi offered a candid account of his departure from Inter last summer.

“The truth is that everything happened very quickly,” he said.

“Two days after Monaco we met at Marotta’s house, with Ausilio and Baccin present. In that context I expressed the need for a change, because I felt a cycle had come to an end. They would have liked to continue with me but they understood the choice, we parted as friends and still are. But if we had won the Champions League I would have stayed at Inter.”

Inzaghi also acknowledged that he had previously resisted approaches from other clubs. “Even in other situations there had been requests and I had never accepted them,” he said.