Junior Ndiaye and Mackenzie Hunt call ups mark new chapter for UAE football

Squad for World Cup qualifiers against Qatar and Iran include players from English and French leagues

Mackenzie Hunt, who plays his club football in England with League Two side Fleetwood Town, has been called up to the UAE squad for their upcoming 2024 World Cup qualifiers. Photo: Fleetwood Town/Adam Gee PicsShow less

The UAE have ushered in a new era by announcing a squad for their 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Qatar and Iran which includes players from the English and French leagues.

The national team have rarely looked beyond the borders of the Emirates when selecting players in the past.

The 30-man squad for the September internationals includes players drawn from Premier League and Ligue 1 clubs, as well as the fourth tier of English football.

Junior Ndiaye has been called up for the first time. The 19-year-old striker played age-group football for France, where he is on the books of Montpellier.

However, he has now switched his allegiance to the UAE. He was born in Dubai, where his father, Samba, had two seasons as a player with Al Nasr.

Adli Mohamed, a teenaged goalkeeper with Southampton in the UK, is named among four keepers in the squad.

The other new recruit based in the UK is Mackenzie Hunt, a versatile left-sided player who has been in impressive form for Fleetwood Town in England’s League 2 this season.

The Liverpool-born player had been part of the Everton set up until this summer. He was on the bench 20 times last season for the Premier League club, without making it onto the field.

He had been associated with Everton since he was six years old, even though he lived in Dubai for seven years.

He attended Dubai English Speaking School, near Al Nasr’s home stadium in Oud Metha, from Years 4-6, before moving onto secondary school in the city.

After two years at Dubai English Speaking College, he opted to move back to Liverpool to pursue his opportunities with Everton’s academy, and signed professional terms with them when he was 17.

He retains a deep affinity with Dubai, where his father, Mark, still lives and works, and he became a UAE citizen earlier this year.

“It is exciting but I won’t know too much about how it feels until I go and do it,” Hunt told The National earlier this month, about the prospect of representing the country.

“I would be happy and excited to represent the UAE because it feels like home to me in lots of ways.”

Mohamed and Hunt might be newcomers from the UK in the squad, but they are not the only players with an association to Britain. Al Wasl midfielder Ali Saleh’s mother is from Edinburgh.

Whether any of the new players makes the starting XI has yet to be seen, with the squad set to assemble for the first time in Dubai once their club commitments are finished this weekend.

They will then depart for Doha, where they face the 2022 World Cup hosts in the first round of the next phase of Asian qualifying on Thursday.

The UAE topped their group in the second round of Asia’s convoluted qualification process for the 2026 World Cup, which will be played in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

In the third phase of the process they are in a group with Qatar, Iran, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and North Korea.

They will host Iran at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain on Tuesday, September 10 in the second match in the group.