For four seasons, he was the undisputed star of the league, the headline act, demoralising defences and bulldozing his way past them with incredulous ease. He topped the scoring charts for the first three of those seasons, by some distance, before Al Jazira’s Mirko Vucinic took over his mantle.
Now Asamoah Gyan has left for China to join Shanghai SIPG, who paid €20 million (Dh81.3m) to Al Ain for his services.
The offer was just too tempting for both Al Ain and Gyan, whose weekly salary of £227,000 (Dh1.3m) puts him among the highest-paid football players in the world, to ignore. Fans across the club divide in UAE, though, will certainly miss his imposing presence.
With 95 goals from 83 Arabian Gulf League appearances, the Ghanaian is assured of a place in local football lore.
Jazira will be champions
The Arabian Gulf Super Cup has shown Al Ain are probably more than capable of defending their league title, with their new overseas players Ryan Babel, Fellipe Bastos and Emmanuel Emenike promising plenty for the coming months.
Al Jazira, however, could thwart the men from the Garden City this time after finishing second last season. The Abu Dhabi side have brought back coach Abel Braga – the Brazilian who in 2010/11 guided Jazira to their only league title – and they have also made some exciting changes to their foreign quartet.
Manuel Lanzini has left for West Ham United, Jonathan Pitroipa has moved to Al Nasr and Jucilei has gone to Chinese club Shandong Luneng.
Jazira have brought in Brazilian midfielder Thiago Neves, winger Jefferson Farfan of Peru and South Korean midfielder Park Jong-woo. With Vucinic staying put, Jazira probably have one of the most explosive foreign quartets in the league.
Now, if they can sort their defence, which was their Achilles heel last season, Jazira fans could be celebrating Braga’s return with their second league title.
Fans will finally fill the stands
Speaking of fans, this season might finally see them massing inside the stadiums, taking every available seat and cheering on their teams. At least, that is the hope of Arabian Gulf League officials, especially with this decision to encrypt all matches on television.
The clubs and the players certainly deserve bigger audiences. The AGL has some coveted stars playing in this league – Jorge Valdivia, Nilmar, Everton Ribeiro, Denilson, Jo, Vucinic, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdulrahman, Madjid Bougherra and Amr Al Sulaya, to name a few – and yet has some of the lowest attendances in Asia.
This needs to change. Fans need to start coming out to the stadiums and support their teams and players.
They, like Abdulrahman said last week, are always trying to give their best, playing in some of the toughest weather conditions anywhere in the world. The least they deserve is a bit of appreciation and encouragement from the stands.
Another goal-fest
Last season saw 562 goals scored in the 182 league matches – an average of three per game. Looking at the players moving to the AGL this season, you can expect those figures to be higher for 2015/16.
The Super Cup, with six goals, was an indication of things to come. Babel, Bastos, Emenike, Neves, Farfan, Valdivia, Nilmar, Denilson, Jo, Al Sulaya, Rodrigo Lima, David Barral, Joaquin Larrivey, Ishak Belfodil and Patrick Friday Eze are just some of the new attacking talents who have arrived over the summer. Spare a thought for the defenders.
Coaching carousel will slow down
Arabian Gulf League clubs have the potential to make this prediction look silly, but fans should see more of their clubs going through the season with the same coach.
Last season had Zlatko Dalic (Al Ain), Eric Gerets (Al Jazira), Cosmin Olaroiu (Al Ahli), Caio Junior (Al Shabab), Ivan Jovanovic (Al Nasr), Luis Garcia (Baniyas), Paulo Bonamigo (Sharjah) and Paulo Comelli (Emirates) stay in their jobs from start to finish, and that number is high keeping in mind the trigger-happy regimes at several clubs.
This year could have even more clubs investing in stability.
Scheduling chaos
In the past two weeks, the uncertainty over the dates of the Gulf Cup of Nations in Kuwait had sown confusion over the start of the season before the Pro League Committee decided to go ahead with the original schedule.
Expect the confusion to continue. The Kuwaiti football federation is unlikely to rescind its decision to postpone the Gulf Cup to next year, despite pressure on it from their government to hold the tournament this December.
If the Kuwaiti federation stands firm and the Gulf Cup is not held this year, league will have to reschedule since it has allotted a one-month break for the regional tournament.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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