Ittihad Kalba announced the official appointment of ex-Bani Yas boss Jorge Da Silva to cap off a weekend in which the third coach, Al Jazira’s Jurgen Streppel, was dismissed in less than a month of Arabian Gulf League-action.
Da Silva, 57, inked a one-year deal on Saturday to replace Italy’s Fabio Viviani whose second spell in charge was terminated on September 27 after he accrued a 15-match winless top-flight run. The ex-Uruguay striker won the 2014/15 Saudi Professional League crown with Al Nassr, but this posting immediately followed an ignominious eight-month stint in the UAE with the Sky Blues.
Elsewhere on Friday, the impatient Pride of Abu Dhabi confirmed the long-expected news that they’d fired Streppel, who won only one of his three AGL matches at the expected title challengers since his July 1 hiring. A return for Marcel Keizer – ditched by Sporting Lisbon last month – is mooted.
Fellow Dutchman Maurice Steijn, 45, is expected to be imminently ditched by Al Wahda and potentially replaced by Braga’s Ricardo Sa Pinto, but Al Wahda were yet to issue any official confirmation by Saturday evening. This cull has also contained Al Nasr’s choice to terminate Caio Zanardi on September 28.
Da Silva will be expected to utilise all the experience accrued in a 12-year senior managerial career and correct Kalba’s slide towards relegation.
The ex-Atletico Madrid and Uruguay striker – whose last job lasted from December 2018-April 2019 in his homeland with Defensor – takes over the only pointless outfit in the AGL after three rounds. They do, however, boast Hungary winger Balazs Dzsudzsak and prolific Togo striker Peniel Mlapa within their ranks.
In the capital, Streppel fell victim to raised expectations.
Jazira spent lavishly in the summer on the likes of 2016 AFC Player of the Year Amoory and – now-injured – Pyramids FC loanee Keno.
