Abu Dhabi: Bani Yas have achieved the surprise coup of persuading the Uruguayan Pablo Repetto — whose feats have been compared to those of Leicester City’s Claudio Ranieri — to be their new coach.

Repetto has led the tiny Ecuadorian club, Independiente del Valle, to the final of the Copa Libertadores — the most prestigious club competition in Latin America football.

As Gulf News reported last week, Bani Yas had been chasing the man opposing Repetto in the final, Atletico Nacional’s Reinaldo Rueda, to fill their managerial vacancy.

But on Monday, a Bani Yas source said: “Coach Pablo Repetto will sign a contract with Bani Yas for two seasons on July 30 after the second leg of the Copa Libertadores final and will travel with the team to the camp in the Netherlands on August 1 until August 22.”

Repetto, 42, has previously managed four clubs in his native Uruguay, but his most distinguished work has come at his current outfit.

Independiente del Valle were formed less than 60 years ago, but they stand on the brink of one of the greatest achievements in South American football history.

On Thursday, they drew 1-1 with the Colombian giants Atletico Nacional in the first leg of the Copa Libertadores final, the decider of which will be played on Wednesday.

“Independiente del Valle’s achievement this year should already rank up there with that of Leicester City,” Tim Vickery, an esteemed South American football expert, wrote on ESPN FC.com wrote last week. “They knocked out the big Buenos Aires pair, reigning champions River Plate in the Monumental stadium, and then topped that by beating Boca Juniors in the world famous Bombonera. It is as if MK Dons got the better of Real Madrid and Barcelona in the Bernabeu and the Camp Nou.”

Repetto’s pedigree bodes well for the AGL’s perennial underdogs Bani Yas, who finished ninth in 2015-16 and parted ways with two coaches during an uninspiring campaign.

First Luis Garcia was sacked in March and his replacement, Dr Abdullah Misfir, departed at the end of the season after falling out with club bosses over Bani Yas’s future direction.

Bani Yas had reportedly offered Atletico Nacional’s Rueda, a 59-year-old Colombian, a contract worth $1.3 million (Dh4.7 million) a year to replace Misfir and were also interested in the ex-Paraguay boss Ramon Diaz and Jose Luis Sierra – who resigned from Chile’s Colo-Colo earlier this month.

Elsewhere, Bani Yas’s Abu Dhabi rivals Al Jazira have instigated a summer overhaul by putting their foreign trio of Brazilian playmaker Thiago Neves, Peruvian winger Jefferson Farfan and Spanish midfielder Angel Lafita up for sale.

Henk ten Cate, the Al Jazira coach, has already retained the former Juventus striker Mirko Vucinic and South Korean midfielder Park Jong-woo.

Meanwhile, as reported by Gulf News last week, Al Wahda are on the verge of completing a three-year deal for the 23-year-old Brazilian forward Tiago Alves.

A fee was agreed with Alves’s Brazilian parent club Penapolense over the weekend and, after a medical, he will join his new teammates on the pre-season tour of Spain.

The forward has excelled on loan at Seongnam FC this year, scoring 13 times during 18 league appearances in South Korea.

He replaces his fellow Brazilian Denilson in Javier Aguirre’s squad, the former Arsenal man having joined Cruzeiro on a six-month loan deal last week.