Al-Wasl F.C.

**Al-Wasl**, founded in Dubai in the 60s, is a football club based in the United Arab Emirates. The club is known for its rich history. It is a part of the Al Wasl Sports Club

### Start of the club

Al Wasl FC was founded in 1960, in the house of Al-Zamalek, it began growing in 1962, and they moved stadium to Zabeel Stadium. In 1966 they won the UAE championship defeating Al-Shabaab in the final.

### Dominant Years

In 1980s they began dominating the league, winning in 1982, 1983, 1985 and 1988. Later in 1992 and 1997 they also won the title. They won the UAEFC in 1993 (UAE Federation Cup).

### Present Years

In 2006/07 they won the league again, and in 2010, they won the Gulf Cup Champions.

## Players

_As of UAE Pro-League:_

### Current squad

_As of UAE Pro-League:_

### Domestic competitions

- **UAE Pro League: 8**
    - **Winner**: 1981–82, 1982–83, 1984–85, 1987–88, 1991–92, 1996–97, 2006–07, 2023–24
- **UAE President's Cup: 3**
    - **Winner**: 1986–87, 2006–07, 2023–24
- **UAE Federation Cup: 1**
    - **Winner**: 1992–93
- The IFFHS named Al Wasl as the UAE's Club of the 20th Century.

### Regional competitions

- **GCC Champions League**
    - **Winner (1) :** 2009–10
    - _Runners-up (2):_ 2005, 2012
- **Arab Club Champions Cup**
    - _Semi-finals:_ 1998
    - _Quarter-finals:_ 2018–19
- Qatar–UAE Super Shield

Winner: (1) 2024_25

## Performance in AFC competitions

- **AFC Champions League: 3 appearances**

- 2008: Group stage
    - 2018: Group stage
    - 2019: Group stage

- **Asian Club Championship: 4 appearances**

- 1986: Qualifying Stage
    - 1989–90: Qualifying Stage
    - 1992–93: Third Place
    - 1994–95: Quarter finals

## Coaching staff

|style="color:black; background: Yellow; border:2px solid black;"|Position|style="color:black; background: Yellow; border:2px solid black;"|Staff|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Head coach|Vacant|||
|rowspan="5"|Assistant coach|Vacant||
|Goalkeeper coach|Romulo Nunes|||
|Fitness coach|Nikolaos Giagou|||
|Chief analyst|Paul Mitchell|||

## Managerial history

<sup>*</sup> <small>Served as caretaker coach.</small>
|Name|Nat.|From|To|Ref.|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Bakhit Salem||style="text-align:center"|1960|style="text-align:center"|1970||
|Ismail Al-Jarman||style="text-align:center"|1971|style="text-align:center"|1971||
|Zaki Osman||style="text-align:center"|1972|style="text-align:center"|1973||
|Valinhos||style="text-align:center"|1980|style="text-align:center"|1981||
|Joel Santana||style="text-align:center"|1981|style="text-align:center"|1986||
|Hassan Shehata||style="text-align:center"|1986|style="text-align:center"|1988||
|Antônio Lopes||style="text-align:center"|1988|style="text-align:center"|1989||
|Gílson Nunes||style="text-align:center"|1989|style="text-align:center"|1990||
|Dimitri Davidović||style="text-align:center"|1991|style="text-align:center"|1992||
|Arthur Bernardes||style="text-align:center"|1996|style="text-align:center"|1998||
|Alain Laurier||style="text-align:center"|1998|style="text-align:center"|December 1998||
|Paulo Campos||style="text-align:center"|January 1999|style="text-align:center"|May 1999||
|Henryk Kasperczak||style="text-align:center"|September 1999|style="text-align:center"|February 2000||
|Alain Laurier*||style="text-align:center"|March 2000|style="text-align:center"|May 2000||
|Josef Hickersberger||style="text-align:center"|June 2000|style="text-align:center"|June 2001||
|Johan Boskamp||style="text-align:center"|July 2001|style="text-align:center"|2002||
|Martín Lasarte||style="text-align:center"|2002|style="text-align:center"|2002||
|Khalifa Al Shamsi*||style="text-align:center"|2002|style="text-align:center"|March 2003||
|Arthur Bernardes||style="text-align:center"|March 2003|style="text-align:center"|May 2004||
|Vinko Begović||style="text-align:center"|2004|style="text-align:center"|2005||
|Zé Mário||style="text-align:center"|2006|style="text-align:center"|2007||
|Miroslav Beránek||style="text-align:center"|2007|style="text-align:center"|2008||
|Alexandre Guimarães||style="text-align:center"|July 2009|style="text-align:center"|May 2010||
|Khalifa Al Shamsi||style="text-align:center"|June 2010|style="text-align:center"|June 2011||
|Sérgio Farias||style="text-align:center"|August 2010|style="text-align:center"|April 2011||
|Diego Maradona||style="text-align:center"|May 2011|style="text-align:center"|July 2012||
|Bruno Metsu||style="text-align:center"|July 2012|style="text-align:center"|October 2012||
|Guy Lacombe||style="text-align:center"|November 2012|style="text-align:center"|February 2013||
|Eid Baroot||style="text-align:center"|February 2013|style="text-align:center"|May 2013||
|Laurent Banide||style="text-align:center"|June 2013|style="text-align:center"|October 2013||
|Héctor Cúper||style="text-align:center"|November 2013|style="text-align:center"|March 2014||
|Jorginho*||style="text-align:center"|March 2014|style="text-align:center"|October 2014||
|Gabriel Calderón||style="text-align:center"|October 2014|style="text-align:center"|May 2016||
|Rodolfo Arruabarrena||style="text-align:center"|July 2016|style="text-align:center"|June 2018||
|Gustavo Quinteros||style="text-align:center"|July 2018|style="text-align:center"|October 2018||
|Hassan Al Abdouli*||style="text-align:center"|October 2018|style="text-align:center"|December 2018||
|Laurențiu Reghecampf||style="text-align:center"|December 2018|style="text-align:center"|October 2020||
|Salem Rabie*||style="text-align:center"|October 2020|style="text-align:center"|December 2020||
|Odair Hellmann||style="text-align:center"|December 2020|style="text-align:center"|June 2022||
|Juan Antonio Pizzi||style="text-align:center"|July 2022|style="text-align:center"|May 2023||
|Miloš Milojević||style="text-align:center"|June 2023|style="text-align:center"|May 2025||
|Luís Castro||style="text-align:center"|June 2025|style="text-align:center"|November 2025||

## Pro-League record

|Season|Lvl.|Tms.|Pos.|President's Cup|League Cup||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2008–09|1|12|7th|Round of 16|First Round||||
|2009–10|1|12|5th|Round of 16|First Round||||
|2010–11|1|12|6th|Semi-Finals|Semi-Finals||||
|2011–12|1|12|8th|Quarter-Finals|Semi-Finals||||
|2012–13|1|14|9th|Round of 16|First Round||||
|2013–14|1|14|12th|Quarter-Finals|First Round||||
|2014–15|1|14|6th|Round of 16|First Round||||
|2015–16|1|14|6th|Quarter-Finals|Semi-Finals||||
|2016–17|1|14|bgcolor="silver"|**2nd**|Quarter-Finals|Semi-Finals|||
|2017–18|1|12|bgcolor="cc9966"|**3rd**|bgcolor="silver"|Runner-ups|bgcolor="silver"|Runner-ups|
|2018–19|1|14|9th|Semi-Finals|Quarter-Finals||||
|2019–20|1|14|8th|Quarter-Finals|Quarter-Finals||||
|2020–21|1|14|9th|Quarter-Finals|Semi-Finals||||
|2021–22|1|14|6th|Semi-Finals|Quarter-Finals||||
|2022–23|1|14|4th|Semi-Finals|First Round||||
|2023–24|1|14|bgcolor="gold"|**1st**|bgcolor="gold"|Champions|Semi-Finals||
|2024–25|1|14|4th|Semi-Finals|Semi-Finals||||
<sub>**Notes** 2019–20 UAE football season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Arab Emirates.</sub>

**Key**

- Pos. = Position
- Tms. = Number of teams
- Lvl. = League

## Other websites

- Official Website

## Infobox (football club)

- **clubname**: Al-Wasl
- **fullname**: Al-Wasl Football Club
- **nickname**: The Cheetahs
- **founded**: 1974
- **ground**: Zabeel Stadium,
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- **capacity**: 18,000
- **chairman**: Rashid Bin Ghaid
- **manager**: Rodolfo Arruabarrena
- **league**: UAE Football League
- **season**: 2015-2016
- **position**: UAE Football League, 6th
- **image**: File:Al Wasl UAE.jpg
- **caption**: Al Wasl FC team at ACL in 2018