Portuguese Pedro Emmanuel Officially Signs With Al Ain as the New Head Coach for A Season and A Half

Press

Al Darmaki: We Trust the Coach’s Capabilities to Contribute in Shaping a Squad Ready to Win Titles

The Shared Aspirations Contributed to Unanimous Agreement to Choose Portuguese Pedro

In Two Weeks, We Analyzed 30 CVs of Various Head Coaches considering Technical, Financial and Administrative dimensions

We Conducted Video Conferences with Various Candidates to Get Answers for Most Details Required

We are on the Verge of a Critical Stage that Requires Firming up our Efforts

Positive Support from the Stands and Social Media Platforms Boost the Boss’ Strengths

Al Ain Football Club Company has officially announced that Portuguese Pedro Emmanuel, 44 years, officially signed with the Club as the new head coach of Al Ain First Football Team for a season and a half.

Dr. Matar Rashid Al Darmaki, Chairman of Al Ain Football Club Company, hailed the dedicated efforts of the Technical Committee for Professionalism. “They did it and recruited a new head coch in two weeks as of the decision taken to terminate the contract of Croatia’s Ivan Leko on 21 December 2019.”

“We are committed to following a well-defined policy consistent with the Club’s strategy to arrive at the best options and achieve the desired goals. Indeed, this is done away from any emotional feelings or urgency in taking the decision,” Dr. Al Darmaki stated.

He added: “The members of the Committee took their final undivided decision based on Pedro’s successful career history along with the team’s aspirations to win all upcoming challenges in all local and continental competitions this season.”

Al Darmaki shed light on the processes adopted to select the new head coach. He said: “The long list of professional profiles we received included 30 names of international coaches. The committee members examined all of them, and they were reduced to 10 names before having a shortlist of 5 coaches. The Technical Committee for Professionalism submitted the required reports to the Board of Directors after screening them and having a table of comparisons to take the final decision based on the reports and the technical, financial and administrative analysis, as well as interviewing the coaches via video conferencing.”

On the reason for interviewing the coaches via video conferences, Al Darmaki stated that the members interviewed the coaches to know the coach’s personality. “They also wanted to get an idea about his plan to deal with the players, his action plan, his passion to win championships, ability to work under pressure and inform him about the Club’s policies, strategic plans, institutional values, and the concept of “governance” system and the culture of the players as well as their potentials.”

Mr. Chairman pointed out that the committee members adopted a unified policy in screening the names they have had. The points selected in comparing between the candidates include their years of experience, titles they won with their teams considering the intensity and strength of the league, teams they were in charge of, their experience in the Gulf region, job stability, method of playing, reference recommendation made by his recent Club, in addition to Al Ain Club’s financial offer, penalty clause, and the contract term.

Al Darmaki underlined that he is confident that the stars of the Boss’ stars are capable of realizing the Club’s goals under the command of the Portuguese head coach. “The new head coach knows well the potentials of squad players as he used to watching the games of the team and will be a key partner in taking the decisions on preparing the team during the winter, i.e., identifying the requirements needed to boost the team’s strength and to compete to win titles.”

“Al Ain is on the verge of a new critical stage. This requires all of us to consolidate our efforts to realize the desired goals,” Dr. Al Darmaki said.

He also emphasized that all have full confidence in the players, coaching teams, administrative staff, and on top is the Ainawi Nation. “The Ainawi fans are always supporting the aspirations of the team and are one of the important reasons for the team to excel through the history of the club.”

He added: “We are looking forward to receiving our fans’ positive support from the stands and via the social media platforms to reflect the concept of the integrity of the roles.”

Dr. Matar Al Darmaki concluded his statement by extending his sincere appreciation to the Iraqi Ghazi Fahad, the head coach of Al Ain U-21 “Reserved” Team for all his dedicated efforts to oversee the first team affairs “temporarily”.