League title ticket to a bigger stage

Al Ain: Nine-time UAE Football League (UFL) champions, five-time winners of the President's Cup, AFC Champions League winners in 2003, and last season's winners of both the President's Cup and Etisalat Cup - Al Ain's record when it comes to the major tournaments is something to be envied.

The hunger to excel, however, is not likely to be diminished as the side eye the 2009-10 UFL title as the means to enter the Fifa Club World Cup next year in Abu Dhabi.

Coached by German Winfried Schaefer, Al Ain finished third behind Al Jazira and eventual winners Al Ahli last season after promising to complete the triple all along.

Brazilian Andre Diaz along with Chilean star Jorge Valdivia had forged a winning combination for the former Asian club champions. With a few top players leaving for greener pastures, a handful of youngsters were drafted into the senior squad by Schaefer. Al Ain went on to win both the President's Cup and the Etisalat Cup.

Diaz, Al Ain's top scorer last season with 23 goals, has left but the two top class players in Argentine Jose Sand and Brazilian Marcio Emerson have been roped in. While Sand has already impressed, Emerson has joined the squad in training.

With Valdivia having already cast a spell over the strong band of Al Ain followers, the club will be making a serious bid to win back the league title they last won in 2003-04, their third successive win and ninth overall.

While big names like Subait Khater and Hilal Saeed left before the start of last season, Schaefer's squad this year will miss some senior players. But some highly promising youngsters, who did very well when thrown into the deep end last season, give Al Ain a virtually new look. Al Ain have also signed up Ramadan Mallalah, a recent recruit to the UAE national team.

Apart from national team goalkeeper Waleed Salim, Ali Al Waheebi, Faisal Ali and Ramy Yaslam, most of the senior players who helped Al Ain win the 2003 AFC Champions League and then finish runners-up in 2005, apart from helping them win five league titles between 1998 and 2004, have either joined other clubs or retired.

But promising stars Salem Abdullah, Musallam Fayez and Mohammad Fayez clinched berths in the UAE national team with their eye-catching displays during 2008-09.

Schaefer, who virtually grabbed the league title from Al Wahda in a play-off as Al Ahli coach, has tremendous experience and will not take long to ensure his young players combine effectively.

Apart from defending the Etisalat and President Cup titles, Al Ain will also be playing in the AFC Champions League this season. But it will be the UFL title that they will be very keen to capture as it will give them a chance to play in the 2010 Fifa Club World Cup.