DUBAI // From David O’Leary to Diego Maradona, Walter Zenga to Hector Cuper, the clubs in the Arabian Gulf League have developed a reputation over the years for importing illustrious and influential managers.
Al Nasr’s Macedonian winger Ivan Trickovski, though, believes his club have snared the special one – and he is not referring to Jose Mourinho.
Ivan Jovanovic, 52, born in the former socialist state of Yugoslavia, arrived at Al Maktoum Stadium in June 2013 from Apoel Nicosia.
During two spells at the Cypriot club, he won the league title four times, lifted five domestic cups and led Apoel to the quarter-finals of the 2012 Champions League as they topped their group and beat Olympique Lyon in the last 16.
Fluent in Serbian and Greek and quietly competent in English, Jovanovic marched into Nasr with his diminutive frame and mop of white hair and immediately made known his intention of restocking Nasr’s trophy cabinet.
The Dubai-based club were without any silverware since lifting the Arabian Gulf Super Cup in 1990.
Since the arrival of Jovanovic 18 months ago, they have won the GCC Clubs Championship and, on Friday night, reached the final of the Arabian Gulf Cup. They also sit fifth in the AGL, five points off an Asian Champions League berth.
Trickovski played under Jovanovic at Apoel between 2010 and 2012, scoring 17 times in 51 appearances and being named Cyprus’s player of the year.
He formed a strong bond with his coach and, when he had the opportunity to move to Club Brugge for a fee in the region of €1.2 million (Dh5m), he did so with Jovanovic’s reluctant blessing. The two reunited at Nasr last summer.
“He is special, really special,” Trickovski said on Friday after helping his side to a 2-0 Arabian Gulf Cup semi-final win over Baniyas. “He knows what to do, always. He is an unbelievable coach and also, as a person, he knows how to deal with the players. It is not by mistake or by luck, he prepares. He’s amazing.”
There is little doubt Jovanovic’s presence at the Nasr helm was a decisive factor in Trickovski’s decision to move to the Arabian Gulf.
On his arrival last July, he spoke of “meeting my football family again” and referred to his new boss as “an excellent coach, but first of all, a wonderful human being”.
On Friday, Trickovski said that domestic honours were always part of the short-term plan and the team’s cup form has been no surprise.
“Did I expect it? Honestly, yes,” said Trickovski, whose future at Nasr is uncertain.
“I know he has ambitions and I have ambitions too. With him, it is always about going for trophies. It is never just to do well in the league or be a normal team.
“It is his ambition to push for silverware and he knows how to do it. I knew this from the beginning, so moving here was an easy decision to make.”
It is believed that Jovanovic rejected two job offers last summer, including one to succeed Mourinho’s compatriot Fernando Santos as coach of the Greek national team.
Should Nasr defeat Sharjah in the Arabian Gulf Cup final on January 30, his suitors are unlikely to diminish.
“It was very important for us that we reached the final,” Jovanovic said. “Having to play on the 30th is good because it will allow us to maintain our concentration in the league – and also be ready to retain the GCC Clubs Championship.”
Such a feat would be special indeed. No team has defended the trophy since a Saudi Arabian club did it in 1997.
Yet the omens are strong. That club’s name was Al Nassr.
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
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