Abdulaziz Al Anbari has declared the secret to Sharjah’s uplifting success was simple “teamwork” and hard graft after his role in engineering a shock Arabian Gulf League title win was recognised in the season-ending individual prizes.

Al Anbari, 41, ended a 23-year wait for the King to be crowned the UAE’s finest. This continued the club stalwart’s exemplary work after he took over a relegation-threatened squad, on a permanent basis, in October 2017.

The former midfielder’s guile in the dugout saw him, unsurprisingly, become the first Emirati winner of the ‘The Leader – Best Coach’ gong at Friday’s 2018/19 AGL Awards ceremony at Madinat Jumeirah. When quizzed about ‘the secret’ behind this charge, he replied: “Teamwork. We said to the players, if we want to fight with strong teams, we must be together, like a family, like a team.

“You cannot work as individual players. We started the camp like a team, started the league like a team and we finished like one.

“You see our goalkeeper the best, midfielder the best, everything. This vote for me is very important.

“We work hard for team work. It’s not easy to fight with strong teams who had more experience than us.”

The King have led from the off and only suffered their first loss last week, at Al Wasl. Their precipitous rise up the standings also guaranteed a berth in the 2020 AFC Champions League.

Al Anbari admitted he would spend the summer scouring the domestic market to bolster his trophy winning squad.

He said: “Now, will be very hard next season, with the AFC Champions League. We want more hard work next year, we need some local players.

“I hope we will find good local players to help. I know it will not be easy, but we will try our best.”

Sharjah finish off a triumphant campaign away at Emirates Club on Saturday.