Slaven Bilic: I left Saudi Arabia because I didn't get paid, but I'm a much better manager now
Slaven Bilic says he is 'a million times' a better manager for having worked in the Saudi Pro-League. Even if he quit for a reason that might come as something of a shock.
'I left because the club couldn't pay me,' Bilic says. 'I had done the pre-season and we had a great season last season. We finished seventh, just after the big clubs, and there was talk – talk of getting money, not getting money. We had done pre-season with just 14 players, half of them were kids from the academy. It was a bad situation.'
Bilic was in charge of Al Fateh, which is not one of the big, well-resourced Saudi clubs where most of the huge influx of funding – led by the Public Investment Fund – is concentrated. There was no money, at that time, to invest in his team.
'Half the league was waiting and thinking 'How are we going to get the money?' I was meant to fly and they called me and said 'coach, we can't pay you. What are we going to do?' And then we made an agreement and that was it,' explains Bilic, who had a year left on his contract.
He had done an exceptional job. Al Fateh were the best of the rest in the SPL, with its big stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, and while his own experience ended surprisingly, he is certain the league will be a success and not least because the kingdom has a football culture and will host the World Cup in 2034. 'It's only the beginning and I think eventually they are going to sort it out,' he says.
Money was not the biggest challenge, however. Instead, it was perception.
'Every manager who goes there, like with China a few years ago, the reaction is 'oh, he's finished!' When [Rafael] Benítez wanted to come back from China [where he was coaching Dalian to take over at Everton in 2021] they were saying 'can he do it? But he's not a player. What did he lose, his legs? He gained,' Bilic says. 'The only question is whether you are hungry or not. What people don't realise is that for me as a manager it was a bigger challenge to manage in Saudi Arabia than in Europe.
'Basically you are improving as a coach when you are there. I am a better coach, a million times, than before Saudi. Million times. Because of all the issues you have to deal with. It's ridiculous when they think you can't do it. It helps you. I am better. New culture, new problems, everything.'
But the same hunger. The 56-year-old has not worked since leaving Saudi last August – and certainly no one can accuse him of going there for the money – and while he has enjoyed being back in Croatia for an extended period for the first time in 12 years, building a new house in his home town of Split, he misses something: the stress.
Stress? 'You need stress. Because if you are living with stress or drive or pressure – not in a negative way – for 20 years then a stressless life becomes stress to you,' Bilic says. 'I love to work.'
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