Al Nasr have signed Iraq international Mohannad Abdulraheem to replace Wanderley, the Dubai club’s suspended Brazilian striker who joined them as an Asian player on what is claimed to be a falsified Indonesian passport.
Wanderley, 27, was banned from playing in Asia for 60 days on September 2 by the Asian Football Confederation, the continent's governing body, pending an investigation based on a statement by Indonesian state authorities that the passport held by the forward was a forged or falsified document.
Crossing over from Sharjah during the summer, Wanderley made an immediate impact for Nasr. He scored twice in their 3-0 win over Qatari side El Jaish in the first leg of their Asian Champions League quarter-final on August 24.
However, Nasr were forced to forfeit that game and were beaten 1-0 in the return leg last month as they bowed out of the continental championship 4-0 on aggregate.
Abdulraheem no doubt alerted Nasr to his goalscoring exploits when he grabbed all four goals in Iraq’s 4-0 thrashing of Thailand in their recent 2018 World Cup qualifierat the PAS Stadium in Tehran last week.
“Mohannad will be our Asian player in place of Wanderley. We will call a press conference to introduce him and answer all questions,” a club official said when contacted by The National yesterday.
“Wanderley will be signed as a Brazilian player in the January transfer window after the pending case is completed.”
Abdulraheem will join Nasr’s foreign trio of Jires Kembo Ekoko (DR Congo), Jonathan Pitroipa (Burkina Faso) and Abdelaziz Barrada (Morocco).
He is expected to make his debut for his new team in the Arabian Gulf Cup when Nasr play Al Ain on home turf at the Al Maktoum stadium on Sunday. Abdulraheem, 23, began his youth career at his native Al Karkh FC in 2006 and graduated to the first team in 2009.
Three years later, he moved to Duhok where he spent two seasons from 2012 to 2014 before a season with JS Kabylie in Algeria. He returned to Iraq to join Al Zawra’a in 2015.
Abdulraheem made his international debut in 2012 and has 11 goals in 28 international appearances.
In 2012 he won the Asian Young Footballer of the Year award and was also named the Most Valuable Player in the AFC U19 Championship.
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Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
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180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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MATCH INFO
Day 2 at Mount Maunganui
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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
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Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
