Akbar Nawas

Mohamad Akbar Bin Abdul Nawas,[1] also known as Akbar Nawas (born 28 November 1975), is a Singaporean football coach and currently the manager of Nakhon Pathom United in Thai League 1. Nawas has an advanced diploma in business administration from University of Wales and has finished his degree in business administration and marketing from the same University. Nawas mostly prefers to use the 4-1-3-2 formation throughout his entire time as a coach.

Akbar Nawas
Personal information
Full name Mohamad Akbar Bin Abdul Nawas
Date of birth (1975-11-28) 28 November 1975
Place of birth Singapore
Team information
Current team
 Nakhon Pathom United (Manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1998–1999 Marine Castle United
Managerial career
2016–2017 Tampines Rovers
2017–2018 Global Cebu
2018–2020 Chennai City
2021–2022 Balestier Khalsa
2022–2023 Udon Thani
2022–2023 Udon Thani (Sporting Director)
2023– Nakhon Pathom United
*Club domestic league appearances and goals


In 2014, Nawas was the assistant coach to the technical director and coach in the Singapore U21 and at the same time, the youth development manager for the Football Association of Singapore from 2011 to 2014. While doing his share of work in the FAS, Nawas assisted LionsXII head coach, Fandi Ahmad in training and as a match analyst for the LionsXIi in pre-season. (predominantly a U23 team with ten senior players, playing in the Malaysian Super Professional League)

In 2015, Nawas was appointed the assistant coach of Tampines Rovers and the head coach for the Tampines Rovers U21 Reserve team who emerged as champions in the Reserve League

Early life

As a child, football became the life of Nawas. At the age of 10, he played in the junior and senior level of the Macpherson Primary School from 1985 to 1987. And from 1988 to 1992, Nawas played in the "C" and "B" Divisions for Macpherson Secondary School.

Nawas captained the Professional Club side Trywhitt Under-19 side to third Place. He also played for the Singapore Under-19 and professional club side Trywhitt senior team. As a football player, Nawas was called up to play for the Singapore Pre–Olympic team and the national team for Under 23s and U19s.[2]

Club career

From 1998 to 1999, Nawas played for Marine Castle United in the top flight league in Singapore, the S.League. Nawas was then called up for training with the National "A" team for the Dunhill Cup after his stint with Marine Castle United. In 1999, he had an ACL operation and stopped playing competitive football.

He joined the compulsory military service in 1996 and played football in the Police Force Home team. In 1995, Nawas started to play professionally in the Singapore Football Professional teams and he was called up for the Singapore Pre-Olympic and Jakarta Squad team respectively.


Coaching career

Tampines Rovers

In 2015, Nawas first joined as the assistant coach for Tampines Rovers under V. Sundramoorthy. On 27 May 2016, as V. Sundramoorthy was appointed the head coach of Singapore national football team, Nawas was the promoted to head coach of Tampines Rovers for the 2016 season and led the team to the runners up position in the League.[3] The team scored 52 goals in total, of which 30 goals in 12 games were scored in the second half of the season when Nawas took over. He also led Tampines to the 2016 Singapore Cup Final and emerged as runners-up and was a semi-finalist in the 2016 Singapore League Cup, where he introduced the reserve team players as most of the players from the first team were away with the national team. They lost to eventual winners Albirex Niigata (S) in the League Cup semi-finals. Nawas' expertise is the attacking approach in football; this helped Tampines Rovers team to dominate possession in almost every game during his term as head coach and reduced the gap of seven points to only one point, guiding the team from fourth place to second place in the Singapore League. He led the club to a quarterfinal finish at the 2016 AFC Cup and was knocked out of the competition by eventual runners-up Bengaluru FC. Tampines Rovers finished as runners-up in the 2016 S. League season and the club was eligible to participate in the 2017 AFC Champions League qualifying play-offs. They lose against Filipino club, Global FC in their first match thus failing to advance in the play-offs. Nawas resigned in January 2017.[4]


Global Cebu

In May 2017, it was reported that Nawas joined Global Cebu, one of the top football clubs in the Philippines, who participated in the inaugural season of the national professional Philippines Football League, Nawas became the technical consultant and later on was offered the post of a head coach, the first Singaporean coach to handle a football team from the Philippines.[5] Global Cebu made history as the first Philippines football club to reach the finals of the 2017 Singapore Cup in which they draw 2-2 but lost on penalties shoot out. He then helped the club in their 2017 AFC Cup group stage campaign with club like Johor Darul Ta'zim, Boeung Ket Angkor and Magwe. The club manage to get 5 wins and 1 lost in the group and ended up as group leaders which see them face against Home United in the Zonal semi-finals but they lost 5-4 on aggregate.

Chennai City

In March 2018, he joined I-League side Chennai City as head coach. Nawas, who was the former technical consultant of the club, takes over as the head coach from V.Soundararajan after the team had finished a disappointing eighth position in the 2017–18 I-League.[6] In his first full season, he helped Chennai City overcome all odds to win the 2018–19 I-League season.[7] He gained lots of praise and recognition for his work with the team, and his contract was renewed for the 2019–20 season.[8] On 26 October 2020, Nawas parted ways with the club by mutual consent in which countrymen, Satyasagara took over the helms.

Balestier Khalsa

On 22 October 2021, Akbar was announced as the head coach of Balestier Khalsa,[9] succeeding Marko Kraljevic, who left a week prior. According to a club statement, Akbar has penned a two-year contract "worth more than S$170,000”. However, less than 1 year into the contract, Akbar would tender his resignation, and join Thai League 2 side Udon Thani FC,[10] less than a week after a record 6-1 win against Hougang United.

Controversy

It was revealed that his time at Balestier Khalsa turn sour when he was made to become the kit man and needing to wash the training bibs after the team training at the St Wilfrid's Sports Complex. Nawas, along with assistant coach, Razif Ariff would then head back to Toa Payoh Stadium and get the bibs washed and dried following the training session, all because the club did not have a full-time kit manager who would look after the team's training needs.

Udon Thani

On 1 September 2022, Nawas joined Thai League 2 club, Udon Thani. it is understood that Nawas will initially act as the club's technical director, while also serving as an head coach. On 18 December 2023, Nawas stepped down as head coach to become the sporting director of the club while Mavi Lopes took over the head coach position. On 17 February 2023, Nawas was appointed as the club head coach again while also keeping his job as the club sporting director.

Nakhon Pathom United

Nakhon Pathom United president, Panuwat Sasomsup, an admirer of his coaching abilities, enquire the possibilities of Nawas to coach the club for the Thai League 1 2023-24 season which on 5 June 2023, the club announced Nawas as their new head coach who signed an initial one-year contract in which he was the accolade of being the first Singaporean to lead a Thai football club in the top tier. Nawas turned down offers from three Indian clubs as he was interested in the club vision.

Personal life

Nawas son, Saifullah Akbar is also a professional footballer who is currently playing for Tampines Rovers in the Singapore Premier League.

Managerial statistics
As of match played 22 October 2023
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record
PWDLWin %
Tampines Rovers Reserves 1 January 2015 31 December 2015 1 0 0 1 000.00
Tampines Rovers 27 May 2016 27 January 2017 24 15 1 8 062.50
Global Cebu 20 June 2017 31 December 2017 11 4 5 2 036.36
Chennai City 20 March 2018 22 June 2020 45 21 11 13 046.67
Balestier Khalsa 22 October 2021 31 August 2022 22 6 2 14 027.27
Udon Thani 1 September 2022 18 December 2022 16 2 2 12 012.50
17 February 2023 5 June 2023 12 3 1 8 025.00
Nakhon Pathom United 5 June 2023 Present 8 3 2 3 037.50
Total 139 54 24 61 038.85

Honours

Managerial

Chennai City

References
  1. "Match Summary – Tampine Rovers v. JSW Bengalaru FC (AFC Cup 2016)". Asian Football Confederation. 21 September 2016. Archived from the original on 31 August 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  2. Nayak, Nicolai (11 March 2020). "From juggling jobs to being a football coach: The fascinating journey of Chennai City's Akbar Nawas". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 2 April 2020. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  3. "Former Tampines Coach Akbar Nawas takes over at Global-Cebu". ESPN FC. ESPN. 21 June 2017. Archived from the original on 25 June 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  4. "Akbar Nawas steps down as head coach of Tampine Rovers". Asian Football Confederation. 28 January 2017. Archived from the original on 28 June 2017. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
  5. Osman, Shamir (15 May 2017). "Global FC rope in former Stags coach Akbar as technical consultant". The New Paper. Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co. Archived from the original on 20 January 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
  6. "Chennai City FC appoint Nawas as coach, Barcelona's Villa named assistant". timesofindia.com. 20 March 2018. Archived from the original on 20 July 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  7. "Chennai City sweep I-League awards". theshillongtimes.com. The Shillong Times. 21 March 2019. Archived from the original on 21 March 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  8. Jayakumar, Vikram (1 July 2020). "The Midfield Maverick Realizing his Footballing Dreams: An Exclusive with Chennai City FC's Sriram". soccerkakis.org. SOCCERKAKIS. Archived from the original on 3 December 2022. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  9. "Akbar Nawas takes charge at Balestier Khalsa - Football Association of Singapore". spl.sg. Archived from the original on 18 August 2022. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  10. Auto, Hermes (18 August 2022). "Football: Balestier Khalsa coach Akbar Nawas set to leave SPL club for 'unique' Thai challenge | The Straits Times". www.straitstimes.com. Archived from the original on 18 August 2022. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  11. "Chennai City Crowned I-League 2018-19 Champions After Win Against Minerva Punjab". Press Trust of India (PTI). NDTV. 9 March 2019. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  12. Dutta, Raja (29 March 2019). "The 2018/19 I-League End of Season Awards | Sportsbeatsindia". Archived from the original on 20 June 2020. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  13. "The 2018/19 I-League End of Season Awards". The Away End. 13 March 2019. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
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