Mahdi Ali .. the architect of Emirati achievements and the champion of the Al-Ahly trilogy

One of the most prominent football talents in the history of the United Arab Emirates during the eighties and nineties of the last century, and one of the best players presented by the Red Castle (Al-Ahly Club) to the football arena.

He is the engineer Mahdi Ali Reda, who was born in Dubai on April 20, 1965, and he started his career with the ball at a very young age, as he joined the football school in Al-Ahly Club at the age of eight. He was included in the club’s age groups until he joined the first team in the 1984/1985 season, accompanied by the most important and prominent stars of the club, Abdul Razzaq Ibrahim, Salah Rashid, and Tayeb Muhammad Rafi.

Mahdi Ali starred with the Emirati Al-Abyad during the period from 1986 to 1989, when he played under the technical leadership of two of the greatest coaches, Carlos Alberto and Mario Zagallo.

Mahdi Ali retired from playing in 1998, and began technical work in the junior stages at Al-Ahly Club and the Football Association, then took over the task of coaching the Olympic team, and then the first team.

Coach Mahdi Ali drew great attention, as he drew it before as the best midfield player, as he started the training work as a young man, but he achieved unparalleled success when he flew the young white to the U-20 World Cup finals, which was held in the Egyptian capital Cairo 2009, and then won the title of rhe Gulf Olympic teams, the silver medalist of the Asian Games (Guangzhou 2011), and in 2011 Mahdi Ali went through a coexistence experience with the Barcelona Club World Cup champion, to gain new experiences that would benefit him in his technical work, but he did not complete the experience, as he was asked to lead Baniyas Club temporarily. He hesitated to return and accept the task, and finally qualified for the 2012 London Olympics, and despite the good performance of Al-Abyad, he did not pass the first round, as he faced teams with great experience (England, Uruguay, and Senegal), and one of the situations he faced during those Olympics, that Luis Suarez went to him while eating his meal in the restaurant, he congratulated him on the level he showed against Uruguay and assured him that Al-Abyad did not deserve to lose the match.

Mahdi Ali assumed the technical leadership of the first Al-Abyad on August 14, 2012, and led the UAE to winning its second title in the Gulf Cup tournaments, where he achieved the 13th Gulf title in Bahrain, and also led the team to third place in the 2015 Asian Cup, and Mahdi Ali submitted his resignation from training Al-Abyad in March 2017 due to the loss against the Australian Kangaroo 0/2, and the failure to qualify for the World Cup in Russia 2018, his score with the team was 63 matches, winning 39, drawing 10, and losing 14. The team scored 129 goals under his leadership, and the White nets received 65.

After leaving the national team, Mahdi Ali moved to coach Al-Ahly youth for a second term, 2017/2018, where he had previously led the team before 2009/2010, which he returned to for a third time in the 2020/21 season, and was able to lead it to glory with 3 titles out of 4 to dig his name again in golden letters on the local scene.

It is worth noting that Mahdi Ali took over the team’s training in December 2020, and was in seventh place with 14 points and suffering from poor results, but he accepted the challenge and succeeded in winning the Arabian Gulf Super Cup by winning the final match over Sharjah 1/0, in January 2021, at Stadium Al-Nasr Club in Dubai, to add the club’s fifth title in that tournament, and also led Al-Ahly youth to the UAE Arabian Gulf Cup title in the exceptional version that bore the name of the Fifty Cup (the 50th anniversary of the founding of the UAE), and won the final over Al-Nasr by penalty shootouts, then the club achieved the third title in 2021 under his leadership, the President’s Cup champion, after winning over Al Nasr 2-1, at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain, to add to the club’s treasury the tenth title in the championship, and at the end of the season, Mahdi Ali’s harvest with the team in the league was 10 victories, 6 draws and one loss, to finish last season in third place, 7 points behind the champion Al Jazira.