JEDDAH, 31 December 2004 — Al-Ahli’s new Brazilian coach, Junenio, denied news reports of his having a heart disease.
Junenio issued the denial in a press conference Wednesday at the club’s premises here.
Junenio was just signed by Ahli to a contract. He replaced fellow Brazilian Falamer as head of the coaching staff.
Underlining his credentials, Junenio said he has many championships with various teams under his belt.
Setting the record straight, Junenio said: “I needed a rest after long years of coaching and I did medical tests including heart tests. All test results were negative for any ailment.”
He expressed his happiness to coach a strong team with a winning tradition like Al-Ahli club saying he would lead the team to more championships through hard work. He said that coaching Brazilian teams is very difficult because all teams are after championships and that he was very proud in the past years he was never fired from any coaching position in the past. He said that Ahli Club have good players and in the last match of Ahli against Al-Ittifaq, which was 1-0 for Ahli, he noticed many team flaws which he would like to address.
Of the Brazilian professional players in the team, he said: “as of Keem, I trained him before in a Brazilian club and he is good. Regerio is the team striker and I will work hard to improve his skills. As of the third player Betchar, I will monitor him in the future matches to review his performance”.
He said that he is not afraid that he took over a team in the middle of the season saying that he has done that before many times with many clubs. He started his career in the Kingdom with Al-Shabab club he joined during the middle of the season. Despite this he gave Shabab titles in the King Fahd Cup and Crown Prince Cup.
