JEDDAH, 12 July 2006 — The Al-Ahli football club is getting ready for the new season under the supervision of coach Nebusha. For starters, the team will play friendly matches against local club teams before leaving for Syria to participate in a friendly international tournament.
A number of Arab teams are seeing action in the tournament which the Ahli coach will use to help the team’s preparations for the season-opening Prince Faisal ibn Fahd Cup tournament.
In this tournament the Serbian coach will inject new blood to the team by tapping the fresh recruits to play alongside the veterans.
Nebusha has elevated 15 players from the youth team to the main team to give them a chance to prove themselves and earn selection to the regular team.
The coach asked the Ahli management to start two weeks early and to include only young faces. This is to give him more time to pick the good quality players.
The Serbian coach has sent a strong message to the Ahli regular players to shape up or sit on the bench for the rest of the season.
Midfielder Saleh Al-Muhammadi will miss the Syria tournament as he is still on one-month vacation he requested after getting married. The new fitness trainer, Medina, will work on increasing the fitness level of all Ahli players.
Meantime, Ahli club management has released 14 players. These are Emad Siddiq, Ali Al-Dawi, Hassan Al-Shehri, Rashad Al-Shamrani, Waleed Mujmmi, Naif AL-Khaybari, Idress Shaerie, Hussein Al-Turki, Hamza Shukri and Fawzi AL-Shehri. Waleed Al-Jizani and Majed Al-Subhi received an offer from Ansar Club in Madinah. Fahd Al-Zahrani and Ali Al-Abdali also received offers from a local club.
Ahli club is now searching for strikers since the list of unwanted players included five strikers and there is only Malek Muaz and two other inexperienced strikers left in the roster. The club is eyeing to enlist the services of some strikers from local teams.
It is also looking for a new defender player since two of their backliners will be busy with the Saudi youth team participating in Asian Cup event in India next October and one Ahli defender will be busy with the Saudi national team.
A Serbian striker is to arrive next Wednesday and after evaluation of his performance he will earn a spot on the team as one of the professional players.
