Sergio Piernas: “Saudi Arabia is with the arrow up”

He was born in Barcelona, ​​grew up in Córdoba and currently resides in Madrid. TO Sergio Legs (Barcelona, ​​1976) it was never difficult for him to pack his bags. Even less when the reason was to sit on a bench, even if it was thousands of miles from home. This is how Catalan ended up in the Persian Gulf, on the shores of the Bohai Sea or in North Africa. “Saudi Arabia is the country with which I have connected the most. I continue within that context because I felt very comfortable there. I know the league and the players,” he reveals after finishing his time as head of the Moroccan U-17 team.

Sergio Piernas was going to direct the 'Atlas Lions' in the Africa Cup, but FIFA decided to suspend the competition because of Covid. After the stick that supposed to destroy all a preparation, the Spaniard ended his relationship with the Moroccan Federation and is “open to everything”, although what he would like the most would be “to return to the Persian Gulf” because “I know the teams in detail “. “My five years in Arabia were great. I contacted all the clubs and got to know all the structures. There they open the doors for you, they respect your work and they give you facilities so that you can demonstrate,” completes Legs.

Sergio Piernas watches practically all the games of the Saudi Professional League. Including those of Al Shabab of his compatriot Carlos Inarejos, who competed face to face against Al Hilal and was about to win the league title. “Spending six months at that club, which is especially impulsive, has tremendous merit. In the end, Al Hilal won, who is a monster and anyone can lose against him, but Carlos did an exceptional job,” discovers Legs, who arrived in the country Asian as coach of the U19 team, then he became part of the coaching staff of Juan Ramón López Caro in the senior team and in 2017, after a second spell at Atlético de Madrid and leading Dalian Pro in the Chinese Super League, He returned to manage Al Ettifaq, a club with which he continues to share opinions.

“Contrary to what people might think, the Saudi Professional League is a very high-level competition. There a coach feels comfortable. He is very professional and has very interesting hobbies. The clubs have grown a lot in recent years. modernized and that makes professionals feel like we are in a professional structure “, analyzes Sergio Piernas, who believes that justice was not done with the nine Saudis who arrived at LaLiga in 2018:” They arrived with shoehorn and several handicaps: the coach had not chosen and many teams were playing important things. That was a barrier and prevented them from being given more opportunities. Fahad, who went to Levante, and Salem, who was at Villarreal, scored the other day with the national team. valid “.

The Saudi Arabian senior team leads their group in qualifying for the World Cup in Qatar and the U23 team will participate, along with Spain, Germany or France, in the Tokyo Olympics. “It will be interesting to follow them because it will help to discover the level at which they really are. I believe that all matches will be able to compete”, predicts Piernas, who considers the increase in the quota for foreigners in the Saudi Professional League “key”: “As there is less space, the player who arrives is because he has a lot of quality “. The Spaniard believes that, “both at the national team and at the club level, Saudi Arabia is with the arrow up.”