A serial trophy winner from Poland and the man who led emerging superstar Kylian Mbappe to success with France’s juniors were presented by the UAE Football Association on Monday as the new leaders of their Under-23 and U-19 sides.
The top-two youth posts at Al Khawaneej have remained vacant for several months. They have now been filled by the U-23’s Maciej Skorza and U-19’s Ludovic Batelli.
Skorza, 46, is a three-time champion coach of both the Polish league and Super Cup, plus guided Ettifaq FC to sixth-place in the 2012/13 Saudi Professional League. He replaces Hassan Al Abdoli, who left in the wake of July’s failure to make the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship.
Batelli, 54, had been employed by various Les Bleus’ junior sides from 2013 until last winter, when he did not earn an extension to his contract after a disappointing round-of-16 exit at the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup. He had previously led the likes of Mbappe, Jean-Kevin Augustin and Lucas Tousart to success at the 2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship.
“We continue to prepare our national teams in thoughtful ways,” said UAE FA president Marwan bin Ghalita.
“This is in advance of reaching success and serving the first team.
“All our coaches are currently from the European school [Italy’s Alberto Zaccheroni leads the seniors]. But we will always support our citizen coaches.”
Skorza’s major task is to return the UAE to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after they did not qualify for Rio 2016 under Dr Abdullah Misfer.
His first concern is a training camp in Bahrain from March 24-27.
For Batelli, success at this winter’s 2018 AFC U-19 Championship is of paramount importance. The current ‘Golden Generation’ was launched by success in this tournament under Mahdi Ali a decade ago.
His new side will play friendlies this month in Dubai.
