Al Ain won the league despite the advantage of the Shabab Al Ahly squad

The former assistant coach of Al Jazira and Al Dhafra, Italian Gabriele Cioffi, confirmed that Al Ain won the Professional Football League title despite Shabab Al Ahly having the best squad, as he put it.

Cioffi told Emirates Al-Youm that despite leaving the professional league in 2018, he still follows the matches constantly.

He explained: “Only two teams competed seriously for the league title, namely Al-Ain and Shabab Al-Ahly, and in my opinion, Shabab Al-Ahly had the best squad, especially with regard to resident players. However, the team suffered very many injuries, and from my point of view, the team’s performance was not as expected, and perhaps after the wonderful season 2024-2025, some players lost part of their motivation.”

He added: “Al Ain made the most of its best features in attacking transitions, especially through the two brothers Sufyan and Hussein Rahimi, and sometimes Laba Kodjo.”

Regarding the players who caught his attention in the league, Cioffi said that he admires a number of names in different positions, whether in attack, playmaking, defensive midfield, or defense. He said: “I like Sufyan Rahimi a lot, because he is a special and distinguished player, and also watching Federico Cartabia is always fun. I also like Issam Fayez a lot, as he brought balance to Al-Nasr Club during the second half of the season. I also think that Renan Victor, the Shabab Al-Ahly player, is a very interesting player.”

The former Udinese and Hellas Verona coach touched on the 2026 World Cup finals, scheduled for the period from June 11 to July 19, and said: “There is an idea of ​​raising the number of teams to 64 teams, and I think it is interesting in order to develop the largest tournament in world football.”

Regarding the chances of the Arab teams in the next World Cup, and the possibility of repeating the achievement of the Moroccan football team in 2022, he said: “Everything is possible in football with the amount of current investments, but I nominate the Egyptian national team to be one of the teams capable of achieving a surprise.”

Regarding the teams nominated to reach the semi-finals, he said: “I will definitely place France and Spain. As for the other two seats, I believe in Argentina’s chances, while the last seat remains torn between Brazil and the Netherlands.”

Regarding the absence of the Italian national football team from the World Cup for the third time in a row, Cioffi described the situation as an exceptional stage, stressing his confidence in the return of Italian football to its normal position, and said: “I believe that this is an exceptional historical moment that Italy is going through. I strongly believe that Italian football will return to the top again, it is only a matter of time, and we still have many of the best coaches representing us all over the world and achieving success. Soon, we will return to producing distinguished players as we did in the 1990s and in 2006.”

It is noteworthy that Gabriele Cioffi has a coaching career that included Al Jazira Club, with which he won the President’s Cup and qualified for the AFC Champions League after a long absence, in addition to the experience of Al Dhafra Club, and his last stop was with the Italian club Udinese, before he stopped working in 2024 for family reasons, while confirming his readiness to return to training again.

. I strongly believe that Italian football will return to the top again.. It is only a matter of time.