Al Ain's under-15 team emulate senior side’s league success

Dubai: Al Ain's under-15 (U-15) side have emulated the club's senior team by winning the junior championship.

Al Ain club's sports manager Khalifa Sulaiman was left singing praises of his academy coaching staff after his U-15 side lifted the junior championship with a 5-1 win over Emirates last weekend.

This follows the senior side's recent clinching of the Etisalat Pro League.

The latest honour celebrated by the academy follows the U-11 squad's win of the Shaikh Saeed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Championship and U-10, U-12 League wins. Two matches stand between the U-17s and a League and cup double.

Sulaiman said: "Al Ain's junior age group squads have some excellent players — we all work for one goal which is to raise young players to join the first team — there is also a great mechanism in place to raise and promote players from the academy to the first team and reserves. We work in one team to prepare players well in all aspects.

"I would like to thank the administration supervisor of Al Ain football school, Zakaria Ahmad, who paid incredible efforts in the school and despite handling many other responsibilities, he has successfully developed a mechanism for youth team football. I would also like to thank keeper coach Amer Abdul Wahab, who applied untraditional methods in raising the best keepers in the UAE."