Dubai
Jose Luis Sierra won’t renew his contract with Saudi Arabia’s Al Ittihad and is set to join Shabab Al Ahli Dubai Club, according to reports.
The 49-year-old Chilean led the Jeddah-based outfit to last year’s Crown Prince Cup and this year’s Kings Cup, but finished ninth in the Saudi league, which is his worst finish in two seasons at the club, having finished fourth last year.
Sierra is now expected to arrive in Dubai shortly to complete his move to Shabab Ahli in a deal that is said to have already been agreed upon last month.
The former Chile midfielder, who played in the 1998 World Cup and went on to manage both his old clubs Union Espanola and Colo Colo to two Chilean league titles in 2013 and 2015, will replace Mahdi Ali at Rashid Stadium.
Ali didn’t renew his contract at the end of the season despite turning a corner with the club after joining in December. The former UAE coach arrested Shabab Ahli’s decline of 12 games without a win, eight of which came under former coach Cosmin Olaroiu, to finish fifth in the league, while reaching the semi-finals of both cup competitions.
Shabab Al Ahli Dubai were formed from a merger between Al Shabab, Al Ahli and Dubai Club last summer. Before the merger, Al Ahli had been the most successful of the three sides with seven league titles and eight President’s Cups including a runners-up finish in the 2015 Asian Champions League final. Sierra’s job will be to return the collective to similar success.
The Chilean coach will be the second Saudi-based South American to have joined a Dubai club in the past week after Al Wasl replaced Argentine Rodolfo Arruabarrena with Argentine-Bolivian Gustavo Quinteros, who joins from Riyadh’s Al Nassr after finishing third in the Saudi league last season.
