Jesualdo Ferreira (fourth from right) speaks to members of the Al Sadd squad during his first training session.
By Sports Reporter
Doha
Al Sadd’s new coach Jesualdo Ferreira has ruled out hiring new players any time soon, saying he had full trust in the current squad.
The Portuguese national took over the reins at Al Sadd from the long-serving Moroccan Hussein Amotta two days ago, hoping to win more titles for the country’s most successful club.
“Managing Al Sadd is a new challenge for me,” said the 69-year-old, who was earlier in charge of top Egyptian team Zamalek.
“I cannot evaluate the team especially as it was under another coach. But I know that Al Sadd has young players with great abilities and also excellent foreign players too. We will not look to change anything in the upcoming period or to get new players until we know all the players well enough.”
Ever since the emergence of Lekhwiya as Qatar’s top club side, Al Sadd have had their thunder stolen, but Ferreira said the team had the potential to win more glory.
“I hope I can lead the team to more wins and help it return to the top of the Qatar Stars League. Al Sadd is a big club and they have good players.”
As for his knowledge of the Qatar Stars League, Ferreira said that he used to follow the QSL two years ago when his former player at FC Porto Lucho Gonzalez was playing for Al Rayyan.
Ferreira also praised Qatar’s preparations for the 2022 World Cup .
“Qatar is a developed country and it will be ready for the World Cup before schedule. I have seen the preparations which have been taking place at the Khalifa Stadium and it is an architectural masterpiece.”
He pointed out that many World Cup hosts had suffered delays in their preparations. “Everyone saw what happened in Brazil 2014 but I believe the preparations for the Qatar World Cup will be complete before schedule.”
Meanwhile, Ammota expressed his disappointment with the first defeat of the season that came in the match against Lekhwiya in Round 10 of the Qatar Stars League. He pointed out that he did not want his farewell match to end in this manner because of many defensive errors.
“This was the first defeat for the team in the season and I was hoping that my farewell would come with a win which bodes well for the upcoming period. But this is how football is especially with the errors we committed in defence, in addition to the easy opportunities we missed in the first half, which would have been enough to finish off the match. The team lost most of its fighting spirit during the match which prevented them from returning and making amends.”
The Moroccan added: “We committed various errors all over the field which gave Lekhwiya the opportunity to dominate and excel in the second half, leading them to score the second, third and fourth goals, all of which came from defensive errors. It is wise to have a new manager to take the reins in order to give the team a breath of fresh air and renewed spirits.”
Ammota expressed satisfaction with his three-year stint at the club. “I am a son of the club and I will continue to serve it. I am happy with the work I have done for the club in the past few years, during which I was able to win a number of championships. I wish the new manager all the very best.”
For the record, Al Sadd have won the league 13 times, the Emir Cup 15 times, the Heir Apparent Cup five times and the Asian Champions League in 2011.
