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Former Newcastle United sporting director Dan Ashworth has been linked with a sensational move to Saudi Arabia.
Ashworth officially left Newcastle last summer to join Manchester United as sporting director but lasted just five months at Old Trafford before leaving. The 54-year-old has now been linked with a move to his third club in 12 months as SportItalia claim he is in talks with Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr.
Like Newcastle, Al-Nassr are majority owned by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund and have a decorated squad which includes the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane. Ashworth is reportedly in talks to be appointed in a football director role following the departure of former Real Madrid star Fernando Hierro.
Al-Nassr currently sit third in the Saudi Pro League, 10 points behind leaders Al-Ittihad and six points behind last season’s runaway title winners Al-Hilal in second.
Dan Ashworth appointment an ‘error’ by Manchester United
Manchester United pursued Ashworth for months in an attempt to get Newcastle to agree to a compensation fee for the sporting director. Eventually an agreement was reached but Ashworth’s time at Man United was ultimately short-lived.
According to Manchester United’s financial figures for the second quarter of the 2024-25 season, Ashworth was paid £4.1million in compensation by the club to leave.
Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe recently addressed Ashworth’s departure when speaking to Gary Neville on The Overlap, admitting the appointment was an error.
Neville worked alongside Ashworth during his time with England and the Football Association and pointed to the sporting director’s success during his brief spell at Newcastle as well as Brighton & Hove Albion before that.
In a guarded and cagey response, Ratcliffe said: “You may know Dan better than I do, I'm sure you do, but I don't want to go into the details of [his departure] because I don't think it serves any it doesn't serve much purpose.
“I mean at the end of the day it was chemistry. Maybe a bit more than chemistry but let's just say chemistry and it didn't work.
“I know it's an unpopular decision and it's seen as an error and it was an error [to appoint Ashworth] but again I think slightly in our defence we did recognise it as being something that would not work and therefore we decided we would make a change what would have been far easier because of the scrutiny that we knew we would get in the media would have been to live with it but I wasn't prepared to live with it.
“That has to be part of our mentality at Manchester even though we're having to make unpopular decisions if we think it's the right thing then we're going to do it.”
Dan Ashworth linked with other roles
Ashworth has also been linked with sporting director roles at the likes of Arsenal and West Ham United since his departure from Manchester United. While his time at Old Trafford was one to forget, his season and a half at Newcastle ultimately helped the club progress on and off the pitch with several key signings to help the club qualify for the Champions League and reach the Carabao Cup final in 2023.
Newcastle appointed Paul Mitchell as Ashworth’s successor in July 2024.
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