{"id":118718,"date":"2026-01-07T16:29:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/we-want-to-win-league-title-says-al-merrikh-coach"},"modified":"2026-01-07T17:37:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T17:37:35","slug":"we-want-to-win-league-title-says-al-merrikh-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/we-want-to-win-league-title-says-al-merrikh-coach","title":{"rendered":"We want to win league title, says Al Merrikh coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Al Merrikh head coach Darko Novic believes his side is among the strong contenders to win the Rwanda Premier League title this season.<\/p>\n<p>The Sudanese club has been in impressive form, winning seven of their last eight league matches. Currently sitting third on the table, four points behind leaders Police FC, Al Merrikh would move to the top of the standings if they win their four games in hand.<\/p>\n<p>Their recent run, highlighted by Monday\u2019s narrow 1-0 victory over Gasogi United at Kigali Pele\u0301 Stadium, has further strengthened Novic\u2019s belief that his team can claim the league title in their debut season in the Rwanda Premier League.<\/p>\n<p>Serbian coach Darko Novic , headcoach of Al Merrikh<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI expect the league to be very competitive, with around five teams having a realistic chance of winning it, but we want to fight until the end,\u201d Novic said. \u201cMy team is in that mix. I think we now have time to rest, unlike before, and we have better players who can beat any team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Serbian, who won the 2024\/25 league title with APR FC last season, added, \u201cwe are not in the league to follow others. What we must do is play better, enjoy ourselves, and maintain a winning mentality. It is never easy against any team in the league, and we are determined to give 100 percent in every game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Al Merrikh will return to action on January 8 with a crucial clash against table leaders Police FC. They also have three games in hand against Rayon Sports, APR, and their long-time rivals Al Hilal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Rwanda<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. Al Merrikh head coach Darko Novic believes his side is among the strong contenders to win the Rwanda Premier League title this season. The Sudanese club has been in impressive form, winning seven of their last eight league matches. Currently sitting third on the table, four points behind leaders Police FC, Al [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":118717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18,772],"tags":[8984,6057,758,3314],"class_list":["post-118718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","category-to-homepage","tag-al-merrikh-2","tag-darko-novic","tag-rwanda","tag-rwanda-premier-league"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>We want to win league title, says Al Merrikh coach - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Al Merrikh head coach Darko Novic believes his side is among the strong contenders to win the Rwanda Premier League titl ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/we-want-to-win-league-title-says-al-merrikh-coach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We want to win league title, says Al Merrikh coach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Al Merrikh head coach Darko Novic believes his side is among the strong contenders to win the Rwanda Premier League titl ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/we-want-to-win-league-title-says-al-merrikh-coach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-07T16:29:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-07T17:37:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/01\/sm_1767794754.530693.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"666\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/we-want-to-win-league-title-says-al-merrikh-coach#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/we-want-to-win-league-title-says-al-merrikh-coach\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"We want to win league title, says Al Merrikh coach\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-07T16:29:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-07T17:37:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/we-want-to-win-league-title-says-al-merrikh-coach\"},\"wordCount\":284,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/we-want-to-win-league-title-says-al-merrikh-coach#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/01\/sm_1767794754.530693.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"AL MERRIKH\",\"Darko Novic\",\"Rwanda\",\"Rwanda Premier League\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/we-want-to-win-league-title-says-al-merrikh-coach#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/we-want-to-win-league-title-says-al-merrikh-coach\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/we-want-to-win-league-title-says-al-merrikh-coach\",\"name\":\"We want to win league title, says Al Merrikh coach - 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