Mahdi Ali: I was surprised by Van Marvik’s appointment for national team

Xenia Sports – Cairo

Emirati coach Mahdi Ali, the new coach of Al-Shabab Al-Ahly Club, Dubai, said that he had completed his agreement earlier to lead his national team, before he was surprised by the appointment of Dutch coach Bert Van Marwijk as technical director of the Whites, indicating that he was happy with the step of taking over the training of his former team Shabab Al-Ahly.

Mahdi Ali was at the top of the list of candidates to take over the responsibility of coaching the Emirates national team during the past period, since the announcement of the departure of the former coach of the Colombian national team, Jorge Pinto, before the announcement of the contract with Pinto, followed by the announcement of Shabab Al-Ahly to contract with Mahdi for a season and a half, succeeding the Spanish Gerard Zaragoza.

Mahdi explained that his agreement with the club’s management to take over the responsibility of coaching the first team took place some time ago, but the announcement of this step was postponed to an appropriate time before FIFA officials opened negotiations with him to take over the training of the first team before he was surprised by the announcement of the agreement with the Dutch. Van Marvik.

He pointed out that his agreement with Al-Ahly youth was a while ago, and the matter was postponed and announced, pending the position of the UAE Football Association, which negotiated with him to train the national team, describing it as a national mission that could not be rejected.

He added that after the club agreed to the request of the federation, he was surprised by the announcement of the contract with the Dutch Marvik, which made Shabab Al-Ahly decide to announce the contract, especially since the time is short before the next matches, specifically before facing Fujairah in the tenth round of the Arabian Gulf League.

Mahdi expressed his wishes for the new coach of the national team, his technical staff, and the players all luck, and for “the whites” to return to his correct path, especially since his position in his group is not commensurate with and not good, and for them to return the smile to the Emirati fans.

He revealed that he is fully aware of the conditions of his new team by following him and all the Arab Gulf League teams in the past period, and he knows most of its details, preferring at the same time to keep for himself and his team the most prominent observations that contributed to the decline of his results and his ranking to seventh in the ranking table.

The coach of Shabab Al-Ahly confirmed that his team includes a distinguished group of players, and knows their potential well, and most of them have already been trained, but his current situation is much better than it was when he assumed responsibility twice before, indicating that his task in the current situation is to restore the team to the position that befits him, And dealing with each match separately, wishing to win the first match under his leadership against Fujairah, which is of great importance to him.

And about his team’s chances of returning to compete again for the league, he stated that Shabab Al-Ahly is a large team and used to compete in all the tournaments in which it participates, “It is true that the difference between it and the leader is 9 points, which is a big difference, but it is not impossible. We hope that the team depends on itself. “In achieving results, but in this case, he will need to be served by the results of other teams as well. Our focus is now to think about each match separately. I am confident that the team’s performance will evolve from one match to another.”