AGL Manager of the Year: Al Ahli boss Cosmin Olaroiu honoured for third time

Al Ahli manager Cosmin Olaroiu was named Arabian Gulf League Manager of the Year for the third time in four seasons at Monday's annual awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi. Aletihad photo

The Al Ahli manager praised his players for his third Manager of the Year award in four seasons at the Arabian Gulf League Awards ceremony on Monday.

Triple title

The Romanian led his club to three titles – the Arabian Gulf Super Cup, the Emirati-Morocco Super Cup and the Arabian Gulf Cup – and a third-place finish in the Arabian Gulf League to earn them a play-off spot in the 2018 Asian Champions League.

Players did the work

Olaroiu edged out Henk ten Cate, who led Al Jazira to the AGL title with a record number of wins (22), and the Argentine Rodolfo Arruabarrena of league runners-up Al Wasl.

“I get this award because of my players,” Olaroiu said. “I think I train the best players and it’s their performances on the pitch that I get rewarded. So, I don’t get any reward if they don’t perform.”

On finishing third in the AGL

“I think it was a pretty good performance as we had a lot of problems in the team. We had quite a few injuries to some of the key players and we also had a lot of local players in the national team.”

On his future at the club

“This is a question has been asked me at the end of every season,” Olaroiu said. “I have another year left at Ahli. Until now my mind, energy and focus is with the Ahli team. So, I don’t have to talk about this anymore. We have two games in the Asian Champions League coming up against [Saudi Arabian side] Al Ahli.”

Chances against Ahli?

“It is a tough away game for us first,” Olaroiu said. “We must play in front of around 85,000 crowd, and they are a hard team to beat. But we’ll do our best to return with a good result.”

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