If UAE supporters are to be believed, the burden of carrying the dream of the nation falls squarely on the shoulders of a 175cm, Brazilian-born playmaker with a penchant for late night trips to the McDonald’s drive-thru.
It is for good reason that Fabio De Lima is beloved of the national team’s fanbase. Of course, there are the goals – not just the quantity of them, but often their quality, too.
Back in November, De Lima breathed life into the UAE’s wilting World Cup qualifying hopes by scoring four on one extraordinary night against Qatar. The free kick he curved in against the national team’s biggest rivals at Al Nahyan Stadium was a thing of beauty.
That led quickly on to the other reason he is so well liked, which is his relatability. Straight after that 5-0 win, as the fans basked in the glow of success, suddenly De Lima appeared at the same drive-thru as where many of them were grabbing a late-night feed.
Suffice to say, he did not have to pay for his cheat meal. Even Al Nasr fans – the local rivals of his club side, Al Wasl – offered to foot the bill.
If De Lima can reprise the brilliance he showed in that game over the next week to so, he will never have to buy a meal for himself ever again in his adopted homeland.
Two matches in Doha separate the UAE from a first appearance at the World Cup since 1990. They face Oman at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium on Saturday, then Qatar at the same venue on Tuesday. The winner of the three-team play-off will progress to the finals in North America next summer.
De Lima is well aware of what is at stake. “These are the two most important games in our career, and in our lives,” he said. “We should give 200 per cent in these two games.
“We have an opportunity to make history for the country, for our careers, and for our families. We have been focused on our preparation to give ourselves the best chance to do this.”
The path to World Cup qualification has rarely run smoothly for the UAE. Last time round, they at least revived their chances by stunning previously unbeaten South Korea to salvage a place in the intercontinental play-offs.
When they got there, though, they were done in by the same Australia side who had ended their hopes – as well as the reign of then manager Mahdi Ali – four years previously.
Just as the UAE have faced their troubles over the course of the past decade, De Lima’s journey to this point has been a spotted one, too.
He was brought to Wasl in 2014, initially on a two-year loan when Jorginho, the 1994 World Cup-winning Brazil full-back, was the Dubai club's manager.
His switch from Atletico Goianiense, a second-tier club based in central Brazil, was made permanent for a fee of around $270,000, and he has gone on to become a hero for club and country in the time since.
His 11 years in Dubai have not been without their issues. First there was a controversy over him being listed as an Asian player under the old foreign player rules in the game in the UAE.
Reportedly, his registration for that was based on him having an Uzbek passport. He did not play the away fixture in Tashkent in the most recent round of World Cup qualifying.
A season or two later, he was fined by the UAE FA for his role in a video that it was claimed mocked Al Nasr. In it, he appeared to make a penguin dance gesture – a reference to the plastic penguins at the front of Al Nasr Leisureland, which was adjacent to the club’s home ground.
Despite the humble beginnings, and the issues that coloured his opening seasons, he has become one of the greats of the game in the Emirates.
In 2019, he was among the first batch of South America-born footballers to be granted UAE citizenship, thus making him eligible to play for the national team.
In the six years since, he has scored 17 goals in 40 matches for UAE, to add to the 211 goals in 307 appearances for Al Wasl.
Now there is a mural at the back of the stand behind the goal at Al Wasl’s Zabeel Stadium, celebrating a decade of De Lima. Their affection for him is mutually felt.
“This country and Al Wasl has given me everything that I have,” said De Lima, who will turn 33 midway through next summer’s World Cup.
“I have lived 40 per cent of my life in this country. I am very happy to be here and very happy to be with Al Wasl. Now I hope to give the people this gift, and bring them to the World Cup.
“For me, it is too important. I arrived here in 2014, and I felt as though I was a son of this country. I have tried to do my best for the national team always.
“I have been in the national team now for five years, and these two games now are the most important of our lives.
“They are the most important in the history of this country in this competition, and we will try to win these two games. We want to take the country to the World Cup.”
