Artem Bondarenko's Struggles at Al-Ahli: A Coach's Headache

Artem Bondarenko was supposed to be a statement signing. Instead, he has become a flashpoint.

On Friday night at Alinma Stadium in Jeddah, as Al-Ahli prepare to face Al-Hazm in the seventh round of the Saudi Roshn League, the Ukrainian midfielder will not even be in the squad. Again.

The decision, revealed by Saudi journalist Waleed Saeed on X, piles the pressure on Dutch coach Marino Pusic, who has also omitted Brazilian winger Matheus Goncalves from the matchday list. Bondarenko’s absence is the one that stings most. Not just because of his profile, but because this is a problem of Pusic’s own making.

A coach’s signing, a club’s headache

Pusic was the driving force behind Bondarenko’s arrival from Shakhtar Donetsk in last summer’s transfer window. He knew the player well, having coached him at Shakhtar between 2023 and 2025, and pushed hard to bring him to Jeddah. This was his man, his choice, his bet.

The stands never bought in.

Even before the deal was completed, sections of Al-Ahli’s support voiced their opposition. They did not want Bondarenko, and they made that point loudly. When he finally pulled on the shirt, the reception was hostile. During the 5-0 win over Al-Riyadh in the fifth round, the midfielder was jeered by his own fans.

He has not been seen on the pitch since.

In and out, mostly out

Bondarenko’s Al-Ahli career so far reads like a stop-start experiment that never got going. Since joining “Al-Raqi,” he has featured only twice in the league: the 1-3 defeat to Al-Khaleej in the fourth round and that emphatic 5-0 victory over Al-Riyadh in the fifth.

Everywhere else, he has been invisible.

He was completely left out of the squad for the 0-3 loss to Al-Hilal in the third round. He watched from afar again as Al-Ahli fell 2-3 to Al-Qadsiah in the sixth. Now, with his exclusion extended into the clash against Al-Hazm, the pattern is impossible to ignore. Three times dropped from the matchday squad in just seven rounds.

For a 26-year-old imported on the back of his coach’s conviction, this is not rotation. It is rejection.

Fans vs. Pusic

The tension around Bondarenko has become a mirror of the tension around Pusic. Every time the Ukrainian’s name is missing from the list, the question returns: why sign him at all?

The fans had warned the club. They rejected the idea before the ink dried, then turned their frustration directly on the player once he stepped onto the pitch. Their jeers against Al-Riyadh were not just about a performance; they were a verdict on the transfer and, by extension, on the coach who demanded it.

Now Pusic finds himself trapped between principle and pragmatism. Persist with Bondarenko and risk inflaming a crowd that has already made up its mind. Drop him and concede, publicly, that a signing he championed is not working.

For the moment, the coach has chosen the second path. Bondarenko sits out, the team moves on without him, and the pressure tightens around the man who brought him to Jeddah.

The Roshn League season is still young, but for Pusic, this is no longer just about tactics or line-ups. It is about credibility. How many more high-profile omissions can he afford before the spotlight turns fully on him?