Players form queue to join Maradona's Al Wasl
Reuters - Sunday 22 May 2011, 14:58
DUBAI - The Diego Maradona effect is
already creating a buzz at Dubai-based Al Wasl, with players
queuing up to join since the Argentine's appointment, according
to the club's chief executive.
"We are all over the world right now," Al Wasl Football
Company chief Ashraf Ahmed Mohammed told www.sport360.com
website on Sunday.
"The coverage has been incredible. In the three years that
we have been professional, many coaches have approached us with
big CVs but I haven't seen anything like this.
"I think this is the talk of the world."
He added: "We've had a lot of calls from different players
wanting to join Al Wasl, but we don't want our excitement to
overshadow reality. We will need quality and not quantity."
Maradona, the 1986 World Cup winning captain, will take
charge of the seven-times UAE league winners next month.
It will be his first coaching role since guiding Argentina
to the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Cup and his goal will be
to help them become the top team in Asia.
"For previous coaches we were only paying and not gaining,
but with Maradona it's the other way around," Mohammed said.
"There has to be professionalism, everything has to be
professional and in place. Maradona says he doesn't want to be
No. 2, only No. 1, and we have to be optimistic and pragmatic.
"We know we want to be the best and must work towards that
goal to be No. 1, not only in the UAE but in Asia as well."
Mohammed added Maradona would get whatever resource he
needed to achieve that goal.
"We have to find the right tools and that will depend on
him. We don't have an issue with him buying players or bringing
his coaching staff along because these are some of the things he
asked for before," he said.