Sergei Rebrov is the main candidate for the post of head coach of the national team of Ukraine. What does it take for him to lead the national team right now?
Sergey Rebrov himself was a player of the national team of Ukraine – in 75 matches he scored 15 goals and gave 7 assists in 1992-2006. He could have accepted the vacant post of head coach a year and a half ago. But it seems that right now he, more than ever, is close to leading the national team of Ukraine. What is needed for this? That’s what.
Rebrov has a contract for another six months in the UAE
As you know, Sergei Stanislavovich heads Al-Ain. He defends the championship title with his club – having taken sixth place in the UAE championship after the Portuguese Pedro Emmanuel Al-Ain, Rebrov eventually made him the champion for the first time in four years.
However, in the 2022/23 season, the affairs of our fellow countryman were shaken. Al Ain is currently seventh in the Pro League with 19 points. Seven points separate Rebrov’s team from the first place. He has never taken the lead. In 15 matches of all tournaments this season, Al Ain has 6 wins and draws with 3 losses. On average, Rebrov scores 1.6 points per game, although he previously had this important statistical indicator reaching 2.1 – 2.2 points.
At the same time, there are already four coaching resignations in the championship: in October, the Portuguese Carlos Carvalhal in Al Wahda was replaced by the Spaniard Manolo Jimenez, and the Serb Zoran Popovich in Dibba was replaced by the Frenchman Gregory Dufren. In November, Al Babaeh replaced the Brazilian Caio Zanardi with Tunisian Said Shkhit, and Al-Nasr replaced the German Thorsten Fink with the Croat Goran Tomic.
The league still has some top talent: Al-Wasl is led by former Spain striker Juan Antonio Pizzi of Argentina, who has previously worked with Valencia, Saudi Arabia and Chile. Portuguese Leonardo Jardim after Braga, Olympiacos and Monaco works with Shabab. Romanian Cosmin Olaroyyu, who once successfully coached Steaua, is now in Sharjah – and this is the main competitor of Al Ain and the leader of the championship.
Even if Rebrov finishes the season with Al Ain, there are options
Considering the great merits of Rebrov to Al-Ain, we do not consider the option of resignation. Although anything can happen. If not, insider Igor Burbas assures that the option is on the table, in which the national team will work with Rebrov’s future assistants in the first half of the year, and from July 1 he will return to Ukraine. Is it possible to pay for early termination of the contract? In Ukraine, there are difficulties with money, the warring country has where to spend the currency.
However, Al-Ain himself may change his mind – if earlier he was categorically against combining posts, now, perhaps, negotiations make sense. After all, the Ukrainian national team will play in the generally accepted “windows” of international matches. There are hardly any special fees for non-FIFA dates.
The trouble is this: already on March 26, the Ukrainian national team will start qualifying for Euro 2024, and it will be an away match at Wembley against England. Of course, in such a situation, it is important for players to have a permanent coach. How likely is it to be Rebrov personally? We do not know. But we can assume a variant with acting. head coach. This will allow him to leave some continuity between the headquarters of Rebrov, Petrakov and even Shevchenko.
It is very interesting what, in fact, the updated coaching staff will be like.
If Shevchenko worked mainly with foreign assistants, then Petrakov had only one foreigner – the Spaniard Campomar as an analyst-translator. The headquarters of Alexander Vasilyevich also included Alexander Shovkovsky, Ivan Bashtovy, Andrey Annenkov, Vyacheslav Kernozenko and Vyacheslav Ruzhentsev.
Sergei Rebrov in Al Ain works with the Spaniards and the Portuguese – Vicente Gomez (assistant), Luis Aragon Baiona (chief analyst), Gonzalo Beshiga (chief scout). Whether they will go to present-day Ukraine, or whether Rebrov will return to his assistants from the Dynamo era is another important question.
And, finally, the important thing – when exactly will Rebrov be able to start work, already by the starting rounds of the selection, or still by the fifth round, that is, after July 1st?
There is still time to decide, but the first days of selection will be an important watershed
Of course, there is no doubt that Rebrov did not fall out of the Ukrainian agenda – he watched and analyzed the matches of the national team and the Premier League, he is well acquainted with the capabilities of our adult and young players. But any coach needs a backlash for the first matches – probably preliminary training camps. Quite possibly, several friendly – control – matches. And here we reach the point where everything has to be decided. These are the last days of January – the middle of February. It was then, probably, that we will hear either the name of the new head coach of the national team, or the name of the “acting acting”.
We will build on this by analyzing changes in the composition of the national team, its possible sparring partners and training camp dates. In the meantime, we are waiting for news from the UAE, because, in addition to Rebrov, there is also one of the champions of the Ukrainian national team – Yarmolenko. This means that we want the success of Al Ain and the maximum readiness of our people in the UAE.
Bogdan Gryschuk
Source: Sportarena
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
