Ali Mabkhout: The rise of the UAE’s five-star striker set for the biggest test of his flourishing career

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  Ali Mabkhout scored 23 goals in the Arabian Gulf League last season, a record for an Emirati in the professional era. Pawan Singh / The National

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  Ali Mabkhout scored five goals at the 2015 Asian Cup to help the UAE finish third. His tally earned him the Golden Boot. Edgar Su / Reuters

Ali Mabkhout struck three times to secure Al Jazira’s place in the President’s Cup final, three goals against Al Ahli in May to confirm a multi-layered talent.

First, he pounced when goalkeeper Majed Naser spilled a Thiago Neves attempt. Then he rose highest to head home a Park Jong-woo free kick. Not long after half time, he exchanged quick-snap passes with Park before casually dinking the ball over the onrushing Naser. A magical hat-trick to convey his full repertoire.

Pace, predatory, poise. Better still, perfect timing. Just when Jazira needed it, Mabkhout had delivered another example of his rapid development, provided yet more evidence of a trajectory that continues to climb.

In the final against Al Ain, he won a penalty and dispatched it low past Khalid Essa’s outstretched arm to put Jazira 1-0 up. Although Mabkhout later missed his spot-kick in the shootout, he had drawn first blood in the showpiece, his 30th goal of the season, a 30th goal from 32 competitive matches.

He had already registered 23 for the campaign in the Arabian Gulf League, a record haul for an Emirati in the professional era. The previous mark, set by Mabkhout the campaign before, helped Jazira clinch a runner-up finish. With it, Mabkhout scooped the division’s Emirati player of the year award, too.

In recent years, he has stockpiled the plaudits and the prizes, both for club and for country.

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Five goals at the 2014 Gulf Cup to finish the tournament’s top scorer, five again at the 2015 Asian Cup to head the charts, five goals thus far during the protracted qualification for the 2018 World Cup. A trio of fives for the UAE’s five-star striker.

Little wonder he is now considered as important to the national team as Omar Abdulrahman and Ahmed Khalil, arguably more so than the latter.

However, it did not always come so easy.

A product of Jazira’s youth academy, Mabkhout may have made his senior debut in 2008 and, yes, he was a member of the title-winning squad in 2011, but during his first four years with the first team he featured only 39 times in the league, often as a substitute.

As with most UAE clubs, Jazira stocked their attack with foreign recruits, limiting opportunities, delaying Mabkhout’s development. Still, he resolved to learn from those ahead of him: Ricardo Oliveira, Bare, Matias Delgado and Nelson Valdez. It was a sign of Mabkhout’s commitment to the cause, of his determination to acquire an understanding of his craft.

Eventually, it served him well.

It has certainly bore fruit the past few seasons. Undoubtedly, Mabkhout has benefited from a stellar support cast, in training and in competition, principally Abdelaziz Barrada, Manuel Lanzini, even Thiago Neves. They have supplied the ammunition and made him a better player.

He flourished, initially, alongside Mirko Vucinic, the former Roma and Juventus forward, and then in his place, when last season Mabkhout was thrust into the No 9 role because of the Montenegrin’s long-term injury.

Jazira twice showed faith, twice eschewed another star foreign signing. First, they saw Mabkhout as Vucinic’s partner in attack. Then, they decided he was capable enough to fill the void. His self-belief grew, as did his influence.

Last season in particular, the season he labels “the best of my life”, much credit must go to Henk ten Cate and his backroom staff. For when the Dutchman was installed last December to rescue a campaign gone rotten, Mabkhout was out of shape and out of sorts, much like the rest of the team.

Yet Ten Cate immediately identified Mabkhout as his lead man, told him he was his star, the spearhead to the side’s attack. Mabkhout responded perfectly, even to the extra shooting drills days he was given in the build-up to each game, and the pair’s relationship has blossomed.

It has been mutually beneficial.

Mabkhout was always going to react positively to that, though. Speak to people around the club and they describe a wholly professional individual, one who looks after himself well, embraces the additional workload.

If it makes him a more complete player, he buys into it. Evidence of his work ethic can be found among Jazira’s in-house statistics, which reveal that Mabkhout typically ranks among the top two in the team for distance covered at high intensity.

The rising profile, however, has not come at a cost.

Naturally quite quiet, Mabkhout has remained as such even given the frequent thunderous examples of his talent. His approach ensures he is well respected at the club, someone for this admittedly young side to look up to, to aspire to be.

Finally, after 5-hr delay in Shanghai, #UAE land in Tokyo. Can't get night off training, though: no score. #WCQ2018 pic.twitter.com/xSImmTY6v4

As one club source puts it, despite the clamour from around the region and, apparently, from Europe as well, Mabkhout is still a “son of Jazira”.

Whether he remains so is another question. After excelling at last year’s Asian Cup, there was reportedly interest from the Bundesliga. Premier League clubs have enquired, plus two of Spain’s Primera Liga teams.

When rumours of a move to Saudi Arabia were put to Jazira’s then technical director Gianluca Nani earlier this summer, the Italian replied, somewhat tongue in cheek, “not even for Dh200 million”.

Irrespective of the inflated figure, the sentiment was clear: Mabkhout is simply not for sale.

The player, though, has said he is keen to one day make the leap, that Spain and England appeal. At 25, and despite what has gone before it, Mabkhout is entering his prime. Reassuringly, he still sees that peak as some way off.

“I need to work harder for myself,” he said when discussing a transfer to Europe. “This is not enough. I need to work a lot because it will not be the same there – it will be more difficult.”

It says a lot about his character that he constantly seeks to improve. No sooner had Mabkhout collected the 2014/15 Emirati Player of the Year award that was he looking to the following campaign, to surpassing his previous output.

“For me, this is all in the past,” he said. “I’m already thinking about next season.”

Ditto in May, when he departed Zayed Sports City with a record-breaking campaign behind him and a President’s Cup winner’s medal around his neck.

“I hope next season will be even better,” he said. “I need to continue, not stop here.”

That quest continues these next few weeks, when the UAE resume their bid to make a second World Cup.

The third and final qualification stage begins with a devilish double-header: Japan on Thursday and Australia five days later. Group B’s two heavyweights up first, one after another.

Once more, Mabkhout must come to the fore, must prove to be a man for the grand occasion. Gulf Cup, Asian Cup, President’s Cup, World Cup qualifying?

The UAE striker has already displayed a taste for the big time, but the next challenge arguably represents his greatest yet.

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