Grafite: Al Ahli must show desire is strong to win AGL again

Grafite 08:04 15/09/2014
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  • Defending champions: Al Ahli won the AGL title with several games to spare.

    Ahead of the opening day of the AGL season, Al Ahli striker Grafite spoke to Sport360°'s Matt Monaghan at a promotional event for adidas about Al Ahli's chances of silverware, his personal aims for this season and Brazil's torrid World Cup display against Germany.  

    I hope we can repeat what we did last season and win the Arabian Gulf League title, but it will not be easy.

    The new players have come, and we have a big chance to repeat what we did last season. If we keep our motivation, we can do it.

    I know our quality and our capacity, our confidence about our­selves. If our minds change and we think we have already won it, then we cannot achieve the same things.

    We should keep our feet on the ground. We cannot think it will be easy – it will be very hard.

    Mirel Radoi is a very good sign­ing for Al Ahli. He is a very good player with a big capacity for organising the game in the mid­field. Habib Fardan will be a very important player. Local players have the biggest story in UAE football.

    We now have in midfield Fardan, Majid Hassan, Radoi and Hugo Viana. We have a fight inside the group for the positions, this is very good. Al Ahli is even stronger, but the other teams have added experi­ence. They will all try to beat us.

    Coach Cosmin Olaroiu told us that even if other clubs buy big players, we should have the men­tality to find our limits. We won the league by 16 points. But this year will not be easy.

    Al Ain have a very strong team, Al Jazira have great new players, Al Wasl started training before us – everything is prepared for a good league.

    The league will be more com­petitive. No-one will win it like last year, several games before the end.

    Al Ahli and Al Ain are the two biggest teams. The fight is usually between us, and I hope more teams will get involved.

    Cosmin isn’t more relaxed, he is hard. The first time I looked at him I thought ‘this guy is big and angry’, but after you speak to him you realise he is such a good guy.

    I think I should talk with Al Ain’s Asamoah Gyan. The last three years I have tried to be top scorer, but he does not give me the chance.

    I joke with Al Wahda striker Sebastian Tagliabue about this.

    During the summer, I watched the World Cup at home in Brazil. I thought the team did not look like Brazil.

    I saw so many wrong things, they sold a fantasy to the fans. Nobody expected to lose 7-1 to Germany. People were crying in the streets.

    I have the desire to play for two more years. I want to play as long as I have the condition to play at a high level.

    I will remain inside football. But I do not think I can be a coach – how do you choose just 11 players?

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