Olaroiu’s UAE appointment has been 10 years in the making

DUBAI: If the UAE Football Association’s bold plan comes to fruition, 2025 will be remembered as the year unfulfilled dreams became reality.

After nearly a decade of recurring speculation, the widely respected Cosmin Olaroiu was finally unveiled this weekend as the Whites’ new head coach on a two-year deal. Last month’s surprise dismissal of ex-Portugal boss Paulo Bento has allowed the garlanded Romanian space to arrive on the back of a decorated career in Asia, featuring 14 trophies won during 10 campaigns in the UAE — plus five further successes with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal, Qatar’s Al-Sadd and China’s now-defunct Jiangsu Suning.

That this imposing tally could be further added to next month in the finals of the AFC Champions League Two and President’s Cup when gloriously seeing out his Sharjah tenure, as reported by local daily newspapers Al-Khaleej and Al-Bayan, speaks volumes about the 55-year-old managerial behemoth.

There could be no one more qualified, or longer coveted, to resuscitate his adopted country’s ambition of direct entry to World Cup 2026 from third place in the third round’s Group A.

A high-pressure pair of deciding qualifiers feature a must-win home clash on June 5 against Uzbekistan — who are four-points clear in the second-and-final automatic spot — and a face-off  at second-bottom Kyrgyzstan five days later.

Time would always be in short supply for Bento’s replacement once the decision was made to axe him the morning after March’s deeply unconvincing, last-gasp 2-1 win against bottom-placed North Korea. The annual rigours of May’s compact fixture list guarantees it.

Olaroiu has unmatched knowledge of the Whites’ squad and an enviable winning touch. This is the man to secure the UAE only a