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Sports / Qatar Sport

Spanish flavour to spice up Qatar Stars League

Published: 21 Aug 2019 - 07:50 am | Last Updated: 16 Nov 2021 - 04:48 pm
Al Sadd’s coach Xavi Hernandez.

Al Sadd’s coach Xavi Hernandez.

The Peninsula

The Spanish influence on this year’s QNB Stars League will be profound with six coaches from the Iberian country guiding the fortunes of the QSL clubs in the 12-team double leg competition which kicks off today.

Leading the pack of half a dozen coaches from Spain is former Barcelona great Xavi Hernandez, who is at the helm of affairs at defending champions Al Sadd.

Besides, Xavi the other Spaniards hired by their respective Qatari clubs are Marquez Lopez of Al Wakrah, Alos Ferrer of Qatar SC, Jose Murcia of Al Shahaniya, Ruben de la Barrera of Al Ahli and Raul Caneda of Umm Salal.

The Wolves and Al Wakrah match will be a clash of the tiki-taka style of football, which Spain has been known for the last few decades, with Xavi and Lopez, the two men holding the reins of their respective clubs.

Marquez, a former Espanyol player, will be keen to get off to a good start to their campaign having made it to the top division after winning the Second Division championship last March.

On the other hand, Xavi has had a great start to his coaching career having a perfect record so far to his short coaching career.

Xavi, who replaced Portuguese Jesualdo Ferreira after ending his playing career at the end of last season has won three matches so far, all against Al Duhail, two in the AFC Champions League pre-quarter-finals and one in the Sheikh Jassim Cup.

The 1-0 win over Al Duhail in the season-opening Sheikh Jassim Cup last week gave Xavi’s his first trophy of his short coaching career.

The Wolves has also qualified for the AFC Champions League quarterfinal giving a big boost to Xav and Al Sadd.

Today’s second game will feature Qatar Sports Club and reigning Amir Cup winners Al Duhail and will see the clash of coaches from two Iberian countries, Rui Faria from Portugal and Spaniard Carlos.

At Shahania, Murcia will be looking to maintain the good show which helped them finish seventh after earning promotion from the Second Division.

Meanwhile Al Arabi and Al Ahli, mid-table finishers in 2018-19 season, retained their coaches with the former reposing their faith in Iceland’s Heimir Hallgrimsson while the latter will once again be guided by Ruben.

Another Spaniard Raul coach of Umm Salal will be eager to pick up points against a determined Al Rayyan in the week’s last encounter.

The Spanish influence is not confined to club football but writs large over Qatar football.

Incidentally, Qatar national team coach Felix Sanchez is a Spaniard, and was the one who guided the team to the Asian Cup triumph in UAE this year.

Besides Sanchez, who moved up the ladder after coaching different age group teams in Qatar, a number of spanish coaches are imparting basic football lessons to Qataris at the state of the art Aspire Academy training pitches.

Another Spaniard Ivan Bravo, who was earlier the Director General, of Aspire Academy is now the Technical Director of the Qatar Football Association (QFA).

The other non-Spanish coaches include Sebian Slavisa Jokanovic of Al Gharafa, Sami Trabelsi of Tunisia at Al Sailiya, Uruguayan Diego Aguirre at Al Rayyan and England’s Omar Najhi at Al Khor.