Thursday 25 / April / 2024
Muscat: The Al Habsi Football School have signed Andrew Watson as Technical Director, a little more than a year after they first established themselves in the Sultanate.
Run by Omani goalkeeping legend Ali Al Habsi, their latest acquisition serves as a testament to their ambition to improve grassroots football in the nation.
A UEFA-accredited coach, Watson’s last stint saw him serve as first team coach under current Scotland boss Gordon Strachan, a position he retained under former manager Alex McLeish.
“When we started our school on the 7th of January 2016, we had only 75 students with us for our first course, which ran from January to April last year,” said Sulaiman Al Habsi, the CEO of the school.
“Now, we have 150 students, but we would not have been able to grow this way without the help of others in Oman,” he added. “Last year, we sponsored a schools sports tournament in Sur. The majority of these players represented Oman’s national school football teams at the Jeem Tournament in Qatar, which is trying to promote grassroots football in the region. They only returned to Oman about 10 days ago.
“We already have one player named Rashid Al Asmi, who signed for Al Seeb Club last September,” explained Sulaiman. “He trained with us until August 2016, and then he joined their under-14s so we know there is talent here.
The football school now plan to set up exchange programmes with academies in England, in addition to setting up a full-fledged base of operations here.
“We believe there is everything here in Oman for players to succeed,” added Ahmed Al Habsi, the operations manager for the school and a former member of the board of directors of the Oman Football Association.
“What we want to do as part of our long-term plans is to set up an academy here in Oman, where we can fully benefit from Ali Al Habsi’s experience in England,” he said. “He has about 15 or 16 years of experience and I think the youth of Oman will benefit greatly from his expertise.
“Of course, for that we need a lot of land and help from the Oman Football Association and other organisations but I am sure we well get that in the future,” he added.
Andrew Watson – who played football for Hearts of Midlothian, Hibernian and Aberdeen in his native Scotland, and Leeds United in England – is also is keen to see the sport flourish further.
I’ve only been here a few weeks and attended maybe a dozen training sessions, but what I have already seen is that the boys here love their football,” explained Watson, who was also a coach at several clubs across Britain, including Hibernian and Birmingham City. “They show plenty of commitment to the game here.
“We’re in it for the long haul, so that the players here can succeed,” he added. “The development of a player is an association between player and coach, and when the players begin to make sacrifices in order to succeed, that’s when they will realise just how good they are and how much playing football means to them.”
The next programme at the Al Habsi Football School is open to youth between the age of 14 and 17, and runs from March 5 to April 25. Registrations close on February 28.
