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FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN head coach Dragan Talajic last night expressed his heartfelt congratulations to His Majesty King Hamad for their “unbelievable” success in the 26th Gulf Cup in Kuwait, and thanked the King for trusting in the national team to deliver the title.
“This game is for His Majesty,” Talajic said after the match and awarding ceremony.
Talajic also thanked His Majesty’s humanitarian work and youth affairs representative and Supreme Council for Youth and Sports (SCYS) chairman Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and SCYS first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman, and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa for their unwavering support.
He further expressed his gratitude to Bahrain Football Association (BFA) president Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and the entire BFA for their backing of the team.
Talajic was all praise for the kingdom’s fans who travelled to Kuwait City to support the nationals throughout the tournament, especially for last night’s final.
“Mabrook – a million, a trillion mabrooks!” Talajic said ecstatically. “Unbelievable, how many of them came and gave us new power to make this result. Thank you to the fans!”
The Croatian tactician, who has been in charge of the senior men’s national team for less than a year, lauded his players, whom he described as “heroes”.
“For my boys, they are the heroes, they are the top,” Talajic said, adding that he was lost for words. “We played with one heart, one soul – we are for the kingdom!”
Talajic revealed that once Bahrain levelled the score with Mohammed Jassim Marhoon’s 78th-minute penalty, he knew that they would win the game.
“When we are 1-0 down, I was thinking of how to catch up and we wanted to put another striker, but I changed it after we scored,” he said. “All the players were excellent, and when we scored one goal, I was sure we would win the game.
“Big mabrook, I don’t have any words.”
The Bahrainis are expected to fly back to the kingdom from Kuwait this early evening.
Bahrain’s complete list of players who were with the team for the tournament included Marhoon, Mahdi Humaidan, Komail Al Aswad, Ali Madan, Mahdi Abduljabbar, Amine Benaddi, Waleed Al Hayyam, Ebrahim Lutfhallah, Sayed Mohammed Jaafar, Ismaeel Abdullatif, Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Sayed Mahdi Baqer, Jassim Al Shaikh, Hazza Ali, Abdulwahab Al Malood, Mohammed Al Rumaihi, Ammar Mohammed, Hamad Shamsan, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Mohammed Adel, Vincent Emmanuel, Abbas Al Asfoor, Sayed Ahmed Al Wadaei, Ahmed Al Sherooqi, Ebrahim Al Khattal, Hussain Abdulkarim, and Ali Haram.
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