ABU DHABI // Eric Gerets stayed away from the media spotlight on his first day at work with Al Jazira, leaving team manager Ayed Mabkhout to do all the talking at training.
A special welcome was reserved for Abdelaziz Barrada, the Moroccan international who had returned after his wedding in France last month. He was given a bouquet of roses and was tossed up in the air by his teammates.
The first day of training for the 2014/15 season on a steamy Sunday night was confined to running and some stretching work for 40 minutes, a routine that is set to continue throughout the next week. Jazira’s two new foreign recruits, Mirko Vucinic, the Montenegro international from Juventus, and Jonathan Pitroipa, the Burkina Faso international from Rennes, are to arrive Thursday.
“We will have a news conference to officially introduce them on Thursday or Friday,” Mabkhout said. “Everything that has happened in the past month and the plans ahead have been worked out in consultation with the coach.
“It is his first day. The majority of the first team players were in attendance on the first night but the coach will have a look at some of the players in the reserve and the Under 19 squads as well as those on national duty with the Olympic team.
“We are still on the lookout for local players from other clubs and are still negotiating with other clubs.”
Jazira’s bids to recruit Habib Fardan from Al Nasr and Ismail Al Hammadi from Al Ahli have fallen through. Their negotiations with Mohanad Salem, the Al Ain centre-back, may have also had the same result. The player, having delayed his travel plans to talk to Jazira, flew out to join his Al Ain teammates at their camp in Italy on Sunday night.
“As you see he is not training with us,” Mabkhout said when asked about Salem’s move from Al Ain. “We are open to talks with those players in the transfer market. This is an ongoing thing at this time of the year.”
The club’s foreign contingent is complete with Barrada retained from last season and Jucilei da Silva, the Brazilian who was signed during the January transfer window, joining them as the Asian player since having obtained a Palestine passport.
Vucinic replaced Felipe Caicedo, the Ecuadorean international, who the club will either sell or send out on loan.
“There are some clubs from France and Latin America that have shown interest in him,” Mabkhout said.
Following the conditioning camp in Abu Dhabi, Jazira will play in a friendly tournament in the final week of the fasting month of Ramadan before they head to Switzerland for a three-week camp on August 3.
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:
1. Reynaldothewizard
2. North America
3. Raven’s Corner
4. Hawkesbury
5. New Maharajah
6. Secret Ambition
More on Quran memorisation:
The Specs
Engine 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 582bhp (542bhp in GTS model)
Torque: 730Nm
Price: Dh649,000 (Dh549,000 for GTS)
Result
Tottenhan Hotspur 2 Roma 3
Tottenham: Winks 87', Janssen 90 1'
Roma 3
D Perotti 13' (pen), C Under 70', M Tumminello 90 2"
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Moral education needed in a 'rapidly changing world'
Moral education lessons for young people is needed in a rapidly changing world, the head of the programme said.
Alanood Al Kaabi, head of programmes at the Education Affairs Office of the Crown Price Court - Abu Dhabi, said: "The Crown Price Court is fully behind this initiative and have already seen the curriculum succeed in empowering young people and providing them with the necessary tools to succeed in building the future of the nation at all levels.
"Moral education touches on every aspect and subject that children engage in.
"It is not just limited to science or maths but it is involved in all subjects and it is helping children to adapt to integral moral practises.
"The moral education programme has been designed to develop children holistically in a world being rapidly transformed by technology and globalisation."
Read more from Johann Chacko
THE DETAILS
Kaala
Dir: Pa. Ranjith
Starring: Rajinikanth, Huma Qureshi, Easwari Rao, Nana Patekar
Rating: 1.5/5
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
What are the main cyber security threats?
Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
