Al-Wahda SC (Syria)
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| Full name | Al-Wahda Sports Club (Damascus) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Damascene orange (Arabic: البرتقالة الدمشقية) | ||
| Founded | 1928 | ||
| Ground | Abbasiyyin Stadium Damascus, Syria | ||
| Capacity | 30,000 | ||
| Chairman | Maher Al-Sayed | ||
| Manager | |||
| League | Syrian Premier League | ||
| 2020–21 | 4th | ||
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| Active departments of Al-Wahda SC | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Football | Basketball | |
Al-Wahda Sports Club (Arabic: نادي الوحدة الرياضي) is a Syrian multi-sports club based in Damascus. It is mostly known for its football and basketball teams. Al-Wahda were founded in 1928. They play their home games at the Abbasiyyin Stadium. The club is nicknamed The Damascene orange.
History[]
Founded in 1928, Al Wahda is one of the oldest clubs in the Arab world. Previous names for the club include Al Ghouta, and Qasioun (named after Mount Qasioun which overlooks the city of Damascus). Ahmed Ezzat Rifai is the original founder of this club. He met with a group of friends in Souq Saruja, Damascus to discuss setting up a new sports club, and they agreed to found the club and named it Qasioun.[note 1] The club was officially opened in 1928 and hosted a series of sports, including football and weightlifting.
The "Golden Era"[]
Nenad Stavrić is a Serbian coach who joined Al-Wahda club in 2001. He started with two losses against Al-Horriya and Al-Karamah followed with draw with Al-Jaish, the team had to wait until the fifth week of the season to achieve their first win with the new coach. The team finished the league in the third place. In his second year the team had a big improvement In the level of performance especially with the new formation 4–4–2 which was the first time ever a Syrian team to use it, in the beginning the results was awful with the new formation especially the big defeat against the Saudi Arabia champion Al-Ittihad Jeddah seven to nothing in the Arabian club tournament, but after that the team keep improving to win the Syrian Cup in 2003 against Al-Ittihad Aleppo after a dramatic match 5–3. In the next season he made the dream true and Al-Wahda is the 2003–04 Syrian League champion for the first time in the club history, also the team reached the final of AFC Cup and lost against the other Syrian side Al-Jaish after losing the first game 2–3 and winning the second game 1–0. In 2004–05 the team was too close to win the title again but it lost it in the last few weeks with missing a key players along the season with major injury. The curse of injuries continued in the following season but even though the team was closer than the year before to clinch the title. The chairman of the club Khaled Hbobaty decided to replace him with Mansoor Haj Saied and the club entered the black tunnel for several years and remains so to this day.
Honours[]
- Syrian League: 2
- 2003–04, 2014
- Syrian Cup: 8
- 2016, 2020
- In 2016, Al-Wehda received[1] an extraordinary Nine Values Cup, an award of the international children's social programme Football for Friendship.
Performance in AFC competitions[]
- AFC Champions League: 1 appearance
- 2005: Group Stage
- AFC Cup: 4 appearance
Performance in ACL competitions[]
- Arab Champions League: 2 appearance
Current squad[]
First-team squad[]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Former managers[]
Ayman Hakeem (1993–1995)- (1995–2001)
Nenad Stavrić (2001–06)
(2006)- Ayman Hakeem (2006–07)
Costică Ştefănescu (2007)- (2007–08)
- Nizar Mahrous (2008)
- Assaf Khalifa (2009)
(2009)- Nizar Mahrous (2009–11)
- Ayman Hakeem (2012)
- Hussam Al Sayed (2012)
- (2013)
- Rafat Muhammad (2013–2017, 2018, 2019)
- Eyad Abdulkareem (2019–2020)
- Ghassan Maatouk (2020–2021)
- Ayman Hakeem (2021)
- Maher Bahri (2021–)
Notable former players[]
For all current and former Al-Wahda SC players with a Wikipedia article see Category:Al-Wahda SC (Syria) players.
Notes[]
- ^ Qasioun SC, another sports club, was established in 1991.
External links[]
- ^ "Young football ambassadors present Nine Values Cup to the Samba Boys". euronews. 2019-04-03. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
- 1928 establishments in Mandatory Syria
- Association football clubs established in 1928
- Football clubs in Syria
- Sport in Damascus