Miodrag Radulović and officially "sailed" into Basra, a major port center in Iraq.
The former Montenegro coach took over the coaching staff of Al Mina, one of only four clubs not from Baghdad that were champions of that country.
Al Mina (translated as "the port") is not in its best moment right now, tenth in the 20-team standings after eight rounds of the Stars League and with two points won in its last five matches.
"It will be challenging, I had my first training session last night. There will be a period of getting to know the team, there is little time to get used to each other, but that is always the case when you take over a team during a competition. But I am ready for challenges, there have been many in my career," said Radulović, who has been waiting for a new assignment since he left the bench of the Lebanese national team at the end of January.
So, he is returning to club football after a long time.
"As for the goals - this season should be a period of stabilization, and the next one an attempt to get Al Mina to the top of the table. The club is ambitious. Basra is a city from the richest part of Iraq and wants to be an equal rival to the clubs from Baghdad," said Radulović.
He will have his first match on the Al Mina bench on October 10th, and the schedule is such that his team will play away in the first five games.
"The schedule is a little unusual, but that's how it is, we have to be prepared for that," Radulović pointed out.
In his club career, he independently managed Buducnost, the Uzbek teams Pakhtakor and Atyrau, the Kuwaiti Kazma and Al Jahra, and the Iranian Zob Ahan.
As a coach, he was on the bench of Montenegro from 2020 to 2023, on two occasions of Lebanon (2015 - 2019, 2024 - March 2026), with whom he participated twice in the Asian Championship, and briefly of Myanmar.
With Radulović on the coaching staff in Iraq will be his long-time assistant Srdjan Kljajević, and a former football player of Buducnost Petar Grbić.
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