Revered former Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Australia boss Bert van Marwijk is expected to fly on Wednesday and complete final negotiations about a deal the UAE are hopeful should take them all the way to World Cup 2022.
Van Marwijk, 66, has emerged as the UAE Football Association’s preferred candidate to replace the miserly Alberto Zaccheroni. Terms with the ex-AC Milan, Juventus and Japan supremo were, predictably, not renewed after the Whites’ semi-final horror show on home soil at Asian Cup 2019.
The governing body’s technical committee decided to pursue the Dutchman – ahead of other options such as Morocco’s Herve Renard and Al Wahda’s Henk ten Cate – after they were impressed by his revitalisation of the Saudis from August 2015-September 2017. He provided a much-needed injection of discipline and purpose into the fractured Green Falcon ranks, ending their 12-year absence from the global tournament prior to a poisonous fall-out with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation post-qualification.
A four-year contract – equal to Zaccheroni’s package of approximately €3.6 million per annum, including technical staff – should imminently be inked by a tactician who also led his native Netherlands to World Cup 2010’s final and exited at the group stage with Australia in last summer’s event. Bar an unforeseen breakdown in talks, he could be in the stands for Thursday’s friendly against the Saudis or Tuesday’s meeting with Syria.
Van Marwijk has been acting as adviser to son-in-law Mark van Bommel at Eredivisie leaders PSV Eindhoven.
The UAE’s current 25-man squad is training at Abu Dhabi’s Military Division Stadium under Emirati caretaker Saleem Abdulrahman. He was an assistant under Zaccheroni.
After a ‘Golden Generation’ was allowed to wither, missing out on World Cup 2018 under both the paternal Mahdi Ali and ex-Argentina supremo Edgardo Bauza, the UAE FA are placing an emphasis on long-term planning ahead of the protracted run to 2022. Qualifying commitments begin in September as the Whites aim to earn a second-ever appearance – their only trip, to date, came at Italia ’90.
They also desired a foreign leader with a firm grasp of English. Communication under exclusively Italian-speaking Zaccheroni was strained.
Van Marwijk, who expressed interest in the job immediately after the Asian Cup debacle and was also approached to replace Bauza in autumn 2017, was adjudged to fit this remit.
جانب من تدريبات منتخبنا الوطني .. pic.twitter.com/yHmdde3h7w
— UAE NT (@uaent2019) March 18, 2019
Attempts to recruit Renard were complicated by this summer’s Africa Cup of Nations, plus competing interest from Iran. Ten Cate’s lack of international experience counted against him, even though he works in the Arabian Gulf League and won multiple domestic trophies with Al Jazira.
Coveted former Al Ain coach Zlatko Dalic is untouchable at 2018 runners-up Croatia.
