New horizons for national team
Gulf Cup winners now turn attention to the Asian Cup
In the plush surroundings of the Chedi, probably Muscat’s finest hotel, Pim Verbeek is contemplating the end of a long and successful career.
The well-travelled Dutchman has worked all across the world, from the Caribbean to Africa, from Australia to Asia, and he has been to the World Cup finals. But the Asian Cup in January will be his last big tournament.
“I always wanted to work in the Middle East as I’ve played many games there,” says Verbeek.
“The only interesting place with a good quality of life was Oman, and when a new board came in I got the call and was offered a contract in 2016.
“There were some challenges, like the Gulf Cup and to qualify for the Asian Cup, and I think it will be my final job.”
He had immediate success, winning the 2017 Gulf Cup, beating the United Arab Emirates on penalties in the Final, and now takes Oman to the Asian Cup finals for only the fourth time. “This is like the World Cup for Oman,” explains the 62-year-old.
The closest Oman have come to reaching a major international football tournament was the 2012 Olympic Games in London – they lost 2-0 in a play-off with Senegal for the final spot – and Verbeek believes “there should be more from that generation [in my team], but maybe they picked the wrong club or did not train.”
That an Omani side even got close to a major international tournament like the Olympics is almost a miracle. “Individually, they are all good players because they play wherever they can, in the park or the beach. There is a lot of talent, but there is no youth system,” sighs Verbeek.
Oman has a national under-16 team but players are recruited from a handful of private academies and schools, and in some cases even the beach.
“I’ve got kids in our academy that
had only played street or beach football up to the age of 16 or 17,” says Chuck Martini, who runs the Muscat Football Academy. “By that age they have developed bad habits that you can’t get rid of.”
A former goalkeeper, Martini played in England and the USA before opening an academy in Oman in 2013.
Like Verbeek, he believes that Oman has the most naturally talented players in the Gulf but the structure of the domestic game is letting them down.
“There’s a real hotbed of talent here but it’s not nurtured,” says Martini. “Would you send your son to play football somewhere where they might not get paid two weeks later? There’s no sense of professionalism.”
The league is only semi-professional and top-flight clubs get 50,000 Rials (£100,000) each from the federation. The league champions earn 150,000 Rials and winners of the Sultan Qaboos Cup – named after the country’s ailing leader – get 250,000 Rials.
With sponsors and local businessmen covering the wage bill, local players get from 7,000 Rials a season but all have full-time jobs and train after work. With players often more focused on their day job they can lack motivation. Out-of-favour players can experience late payment and in retaliation they may refuse to train. Turning up late to training is not uncommon and rarely merits punishment by a club.
Teams can sign up to four foreigners, who are all full-time and get at least 1,000 Rials a month. Some earn more than 30,000 Rials a season and signing on fees of 20,000 Rials are not unheard of, but overseas players have little to do during the day as their team-mates are at work.
“You can go into the ground and train or go to the physio or just go to the beach,” says Rami Cortez-Chaer, who moved to Oman in 2014 after playing in England. “Every foreign player comes to Muscat and doesn’t want to leave.
“In Salalah or near the UAE border there’s nothing to do. That’s why everyone wants to join Muscat or Oman.”
And Martini sees none of the attachment between clubs and their supporters that he witnessed when playing in England for Wycombe Wanderers or managing at non-league clubs such as Godalming Town. “There’s no sense of community involvement,” he acknowledges. “It would help if they had their own grounds.”
League games in Muscat are often played at the Sultan Qaboos Stadium, where a few hundred fans rattle around the 34,000-capacity national stadium.
Derby games in Seeb or Salalah draw crowds of 3,000 but some provincial top-flight clubs play home games in bigger stadiums away from their base.
Even though clubs do not charge on the gate, fans prefer to watch in the air-conditioned cool of a cafe or at home as the whole league is screened on
television. Another reason for the disconnect is a rapid turnover of coaches and players. Presidents change at least every four years due to elections and a new president usually hires a new coach, often from abroad. They bring in new players but get little time to succeed.
“I’ve played here two seasons and gone through five managers already,” says Tariq Al Mahrooqi, who is a striker with the Oman club. “They need the foreign players. We did badly at the start of this season then signed three Brazilians and did much better.”
Former Croatia under-18 international Vedran Gerc signed for Sohar in 2015 and was the league’s top scorer in his first season in Oman, but returned home this summer to play in Croatia’s third tier.
“The football standard is very low
“There’s a real hotbed of talent here but it’s not nurtured. Would you send your son to play football somewhere where they might not get paid two weeks later?” Chuck Martini, Muscat Football Academy
compared to European countries,” he says. “The standard of living there for Omani people is very, very good. They live in nice houses and they drive new cars and they have good businesses.”
Football is the national sport but short-termism reigns. Previous attempts by the federation to set up grass-roots centres were taken over by the clubs, who spent the money on players’ wages.
All of which makes Verbeek’s success even more admirable.
With former Wigan Athletic and Reading goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi now back in the Middle East with Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia, Verbeek’s only Europeanbased player is Raed Ibrahim Saleh at Maltese champions Valetta. After a year as a full-time professional and playing in UEFA competition, Verbeek has noticed a big difference in the midfielder, who will be one of Oman’s most experienced players at the Asian Cup finals.
The only other overseas-based players likely to feature are a quintet playing in Qatar’s second division. Veteran midfielder Ahmed Mubarak has been playing in Qatar since 2014 and has family there, but the other four are young. Yet for players such as Nadhir Awadh, who is a 24-year-old defender with Al Shanania, the Qatari second tier simply pays better than the Omani top flight.
Despite the standard of Oman’s local league and a lack of overseas stars, the national side were the best side at the recent Gulf Cup but Verbeek admits there was no pressure on them.
Having won in 2009, the Gulf Cup victory in Kuwait was Oman’s second success, but the Asian Cup is a big step up. In three previous appearances they have won just two games and never gone beyond the group stage.
In 2019 the finals are across the border in the UAE and Al Habsi, the team’s star player, says Oman have their best-ever chance of making the knockout phase: “Now there are 24 teams and the chance to qualify for the second round is better. We know that our league is not the best in the world. Of course, it will be very tight, very tough, we have big teams there in our group. We need a hard job from us.”
Oman will be well supported in the UAE but have a difficult draw in group F.
Verbeek says of their opponents: “Japan are maybe number one in Asia and Uzbekistan are always going to be difficult as they have a Russian mentality and will be strong. I don’t know so much about Turkmenistan, so we will say can we get four points from the other games and maybe nick a point from Japan?
“We have to be realistic. Our target is to go to the next round but the problem is goals. We are well organised and have no big egos so we are a proper team, but to win a tournament like that you need some special players who can score. We don’t have that and we have to score goals as a team, and that is harder.”
Verbeek says the federation is tackling the junior issue and his contract runs until 2020, but after the finals he plans to talk with the federation.
“I think this is enough,” adds Verbeek. “All the coaches abroad who are away a long time they say they miss things with their children and don’t want to miss those things with their grandchildren.”
The end is nigh, and Verbeek and Oman want to go out on a high.