Dubai: Mohammad Omar, the former captain of Al Ain and the UAE national team during Bruno Metsu’s glorious Asian Champions League and Gulf Cup winning reign, led the tributes to his late coach who died of cancer on Tuesday.
Metsu died aged 59 in a clinic in his hometown of Coudekerque village in Northern France, following an year-long battle with colon cancer, which eventually spread to his lungs and liver.
The former Anderlecht, Lille and Nice player rose to prominence as a coach in 2002 when he led Senegal to the quarterfinals of the Fifa World Cup, following a shock 1-0 opening win over his native France.
However in the UAE, he will be most fondly remembered for leading club and country to unprecedented highs, winning the 2003 Asian Champions League with Al Ain and the 2007 Gulf Cup of Nations with the UAE national team. That UAE’s first Gulf Cup win under Metsu was only replicated earlier this year under Mahdi Ali.
Metsu replaced Argentine coach Diego Maradona at Dubai’s Al Wasl Club last summer in his final coaching assignment before being diagnosed with cancer and was forced to resign three months into his tenure to seek treatment.
Omar, who last spoke to Metsu a week ago and had planned to take him to an Al Wasl training session this week, told Gulf News: “To me he will always be the greatest. He was the first coach to have won the Gulf Cup for the UAE and the first and so far only manager to have lifted the Asian Champions League with a UAE club.
“Whenever a discussion comes up of who was number one and who made the most difference, it will always be Bruno. He really made a difference to UAE football, I can tell you that.
“To me he was like a big brother. Our relationship wasn’t just on the field, we met outside for coffee and our families would sit together. But the relationship we had outside of football came back onto field and I tried even harder because I knew what he wanted. With him, I always did my best.”
Metsu converted to Islam after marriage and adopted the name Abdul Karim, making the fact that he passed away on the holy day of Eid Al Adha all the more symbolic for Omar.
“This is a blessing from God that he passed away today of all days. He was such a good human being and was so loved by everyone in this country. It is a mercy from God that he passed away on such an important day for Muslims, because everyone knew he had been suffering and was really sick.
“We have a saying in Arabic that when someone passes away, it is the will of God, but it hurts me from deep in my soul to know he’s gone because he really didn’t deserve this.”
