Former PSV coach Fred Rutten emerges as candidate for Al Jazira position

Ali Mabkhout was on target in Al Jazira's 4-0 win over Emirates on Saturday, December 19, with a superb chip over the goalkeeper. Al Ittihad

Fred Rutten, the former PSV Eindhoven coach, is the leading candidate to become the next Al Jazira manager.

The 53-year-old Dutchman heads a shortlist of potential successors to Abel Braga, who parted company with the club earlier this month following a run of three victories from 16 matches in charge.

In his second spell at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Braga struggled to arrest Jazira’s defensive problems and left with the team languishing 11th in the Arabian Gulf League.

Ali Al Junaibi, Jazira's Under 21 coach, has been placed in temporary charge and on Saturday led the senior side to a 4-0 win against Emirates club.

WATCH: Ali Makbhout scores one of the most wonderfully tricky goals of the year – video

Jazira recently appointed Gianluca Nani as sporting director, with the former West Ham United and Watford official helping the club identify a permanent replacement to Braga.

The club’s board are therefore considering Rutten, whose last employment was at Feyenoord, where he was dismissed in May after one season at the Dutch club. They had finished fourth in the Eredivisie.

Previous to that, Rutten managed Vitesse during the 2012/13 season, again guiding the club to fourth.

His longest spell in management came at PSV, where he stayed between 2009 and 2012, helping the 22-time Dutch champions to successive third-placed finishes before he was let go in April 2012. At the time, PSV were fourth in the table.

Rutten, a defender who spent his entire career at FC Twente, began his coaching career with the Enschede side in 1999 – he spent a brief stint in 1995 as interim manager – before becoming assistant coach at PSV in 2002. In 2006, he returned to Twente and then spent a season in charge of Schalke from 2008, leading the German side to eighth in the Bundesliga.

Piet Hamberg, a fellow Dutchman, was in the Jazira dugout for the victory against Emirates in what is believed to be his new role as assistant coach. ​