Majid Al Owais: Society Safety is More Important than Football

Press

We Had Negotiations with Nigerian Ejuke Chidera During Winter Market Transfer
Marouf Received an Official Offer to Renew His Contract

Being hosted in “Al Ain In A Week” TV show broadcasted via Al Ain TV Channel, Majid Al Owais, Board Member of Al Ain Football Club Company, pointed out that Portuguese Pedro Emmanuel deferred submitting his final technical report including his recommendations on the payers’ status and new names of foreign and Emirati players to join the team this season considering the decision to suspend all sports activities due to the breakthrough of coronavirus pandemic.

“Society’s safety comes first! This is why all clubs adopted online training sessions during the current circumstances and as a sign of commitment with the preventive measures,” Al Owais responded to a question on the team’s current preparations.

He said: “The head coach held an important meeting with the players following the last training session held at Khalifa Bin Zayed Stadium and before the decision to suspend sports activities by mid-March 2020. He thoroughly explained to them how important it is to adopt all the preventive measures that dictate social distancing, and he granted them a one-week break before sending each and every player a customized training program.”

Al Owais shed light on arrangements agreed upon with the head coach regarding the activation of the online training programs through holding videoconferences with the players to be supervised by him and his assistant coaching teams.

“Despite using this solution as the only one available, it is a temporary one as holding training sessions on the pitches is completely different, and the existence and interaction of players enhance the team spirit. However, the head coach holds individual visual meetings with the players before kicking off the training sessions to discuss many other important issues. Indeed, as I stated earlier, the society’s safety comes first,” he said.

Replying to a question of the future of Kazakhstan’s Islam Khan and Hungarian Balázs Dzsudzsák signed to Al Ain in the winter market transfer for six months, he said: “Actually, when we tackled this issue with the head coach on his needs and requirements during the winter market transfer, he expressed his desire o have a playmaker and a defender. Following holding negotiations with the defender, he asked for more amounts. After deliberating the issue with the head coach and agreeing that options available during winter are not similar to the summer transfer market, we all decided to have two new players for a six-month contract and to assess their performance to renew their contracts if they prove that they are an added value to the team. The alternative plan was to seek to sign new players during the summer transfer market per the team’s needs and consistent with the head coach’s vision.”

He went on to say: “As we quit the idea of signing with the defender, we had Islam Khan who signed a six-month contract. We had an intention to have the Nigerian Ejuke Chidera “22 years old”, striker of Netherlands’ SC Heerenveen, onboard, but we did not reach a mutual agreement to sign the contract. Then, we had Balázs Dzsudzsák, who signed for Al Ain as a free player to take advantage of his vast experience as a captain of the Hungarian National Football Team and his exceptional potentials instead of leaving a vacant slot in the team’s lineup. Indeed, Dzsudzsák did well with the team during the past period.”

As for Jamal Marouf, Al Owais commended his exceptional and excellent performance, although he was a bench player for most of the time. “Based on the technical recommendations of the head coach, we presented him with an official offer to renew his contract as we have the desire to have him as a key player in the team.”