ABU DHABI // Ali Mabkhout conquered the Arabian Gulf by scoring five goals for the UAE to win the golden boot at the 2014 Gulf Cup of Nations in Saudi Arabia.
Then he conquered Asia with another golden boot at the 2015 Asian Cup in Australia, topping the charts with another five goals.
“It was my dream to win the golden boot one day as a player in the Asian Cup,” the Al Jazira and UAE striker said. “It was many years of hard work but I was so happy that I realised my dream.”
His dreams do not end there. His drive and ambition are so high that he wants to conquer Europe next.
“I am very happy here,” he said. “This club have given me everything and believed in me from the start so I will always be grateful.
“I know that to further my development as a player I have to move to Europe. That’s the next step.
"I want to play in a strong league in Europe. I did get an offer from Germany in January. I had meetings with the board of Al Jazira and they told me they would support me but it would be better to complete this season and in the summer I will meet with them again to see what my options are."
Mahdi Ali, the national team coach, recently questioned the level of play in the AGL, suggesting it was not high enough to prepare an Emirati player for international competition.
Mabkhout does not argue the point.
“Our league is very good but it’s not at a level where you can always keep improving as a player, like in the European leagues. The players there always keep developing as individuals.
“In our league you can reach a level where you peak but after that you can’t improve as an individual.”
Reaching a peak took a few years for the 24-year-old Abu Dhabi native. The league has not seemed difficult for him over the past three seasons; in 66 appearances he has 33 goals, by far the most scored by an Emirati over that period.
Change has come about, he said, because he tried too hard to impress when he was younger but he said he was always confident the goals would come.
“I never lost self-belief in my talent, that was the most important part,” he said.
“I was watching a lot of videos of established strikers, past and present, to improve my skills and there was only one thing on my mind all this time: to be a winner.
“There are many important people inside and outside the team who supported me and assured me that they have my back. This kept me calm, mentally, so I knew all I had to do was work harder, train harder.”
The striker has two big campaigns coming up: the President’s Cup, with Jazira, beginning next week and World Cup qualifying with the national team, starting on June 16 at Timor-Leste.
He could only watch the UAE’s disastrous 2014 World Cup qualifying effort, which was over almost as soon as it began in late 2011.
“I didn’t play in the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign but as an Emirati it always hurts when we lose,” he said.
“Doesn’t matter if I’m playing or not. It was a tough time for our national team as we were in a transition, both in the management and on the field.
“But now it’s a different situation, Mahdi Ali came in and he changed the mentality of the team completely; he brought all the youth players to the senior team.”
Mabkhout said he believes the national side have a strong chance to reach the World Cup finals for the first time since 1990, but they are in a five-team qualifying group that includes Saudi Arabia.
Winner of the group advances to Asia’s final 12, as do four runners-up sides. “We have a very big chance to qualify for the World Cup this time,” he said.
“We respect all the countries in our group, whether its Saudi Arabia, Timor-Leste, Palestine or Malaysia.
“We can’t wait to start the campaign. Saudi is a tough team but our mission is to win all the group games and qualify as early as possible.”
To play in a World Cup would be an massive honour, Mabkhout said.
“It would be the defining moment of my career with the national team,” he said.
“First, I will be very happy for the country and its people, and then the players.”
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