COACH Mehmet Durakovic is regarded as the ‘Special One’ of the M-League for his achievements in the Malaysia Cup.
On Saturday, the former Australian international will have a chance to hoist the Malaysia Cup trophy for the fifth time when his Perak side take on Terengganu in the final at the Shah Alam Stadium.
Durakovic won the Malaysia Cup three times as a player with Selangor between 1995-97, before guiding the Klang Valley side to the title for the first time as a coach in 2015.
Unfortunately, the 53-year-old was not retained by Selangor then as the club hired Zainal Abidin Hassan.
Now, Durakovic, who was one of Australia’s best defenders in his heyday, has a chance to win the trophy for the second time as a coach.
He is also the only foreigner to win the title both as a player and coach.
Perak qualified for the final following a 7-2 aggregate win over Premier League side Sabah, while Terengganu edged defending champions Johor Darul Ta’zim 3-2 in the other two-leg semi-final encounter.
“The Malaysia Cup is a special tournament. I played in it and won the title three times as a player. It was wonderful when I guided my former club Selangor to the title in 2015.
“I love the Malaysia Cup as it is most prestigious tournament in Malaysia and I hope to win it again on Saturday,” said Durakovic yesterday.
On the final, Durakovic said: “We are not the favourites. It is a Cup final and sometimes you need luck to become champions.
“A team can prepare to the fullest in every aspect but still fail in Cup finals.
"I have advised my players to enjoy the final. We will give our 100 per cent and hopefully we can end our 18-year drought.
"We are lucky to be in the final as many players and coaches end their careers without winning the Malaysia Cup."
For the record, Perak are the second most successful local team in the competition with seven titles while Terengganu’s only triumph was in 2001.
Under Durakovic, Perak have been impressive this season. They finished runners-up in the Super League behind champions JDT and were quarter-finallists in the FA Cup.
Their success is attributed to Brazilian trio, Gilmar Filho, Leandro Dos Santos and Wander Luiz, who have netted 67.7 per cent of the 62 goals scored by Perak this season.
Gillmar is the most successful among the three with 21 goals in all competitions.
The three are expected to terrorise Terengganu unless the east coast side can come up with an affective strategy to stop them.
“The three Brazilians have been outstanding but I should also credit the others for Perak’s good season. We are like a family and we play like a family, and I hope all of us will get to hoist the trophy on Saturday,” he added.
Terengganu coach Irfan Bakti is regarded as a master tactician and it will be interesting to see whether he can turn his players into a winning unit on Saturday.
For the record, Irfan has never won the Malaysia Cup as a coach.