From Real Madrid to Al Dhafra, a ‘new experience’ beckons for David Barral

David Barral may not be the best-known expatriate to join the Arabian Gulf League this season, but he arrives from one of the world’s elite leagues.

David Barral will play for Dhafra and train with the team mostly in Abu Dhabi. Satish Kumar / The National

ABU DHABI // David Barral, Al Dhafra’s summer signing, may not be the best-known expatriate to join the Arabian Gulf League this season, but he arrives from one of the world’s elite leagues.

The Spaniard was in the books of Real Madrid for years before spells at Sporting Gijon, Turkish club Orduspor and Levante before his arrival at Abu Dhabi’s Western Region club.

“I wasn’t really disappointed that I didn’t get to play in the first team at Real Madrid,” Barral, 32, said via a translator after a training session on a muggy summer evening.

“They have a lot of good players, so I have no complaints that I didn’t win a place in the first team. However, the experience and the opportunity were great.”

Barral, 32, grew up playing street football in Cadiz, an ancient port city in south-west Spain. He spent his youth career at San Fernando in his home town from 1999 to 2002 and was spotted by Real Madrid scouts in a local competition.

He made his move to the Bernabeu in 2002, where he played for Madrid’s C and B teams for four seasons, and in between he spent a year on loan at neighbouring Fuenlabrada.

“Signing for Dhafra is a new experience,” he said when asked if his career in Spain had reached a crisis.

“I had a few offers to stay in Spain and one each from Qatar and Mexico, but I decided on Dhafra after some research and having spoken to some of my Spanish colleagues who were involved in UAE football.

“The level of the football looked pretty good to me with some well-known foreign names, and considering the quality of life in the country. So, both combined, I thought I’ll have a go at it.”

Barral is known for a sense of humour on and off the pitch, but with the language barrier, it has not emerged that he has caught the attention of his new dressing room colleagues.

“He seems to be the jovial type, but we really haven’t spent much time to know the inside-out of him as a person,” said Abdulsalam Jumaa, Dhafra’s veteran midfielder and captain.

Barral said he was getting along well with his new colleagues with the little English he can speak.

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“I feel very comfortable with my work and to strike a conversation with my fellow players. I’m with my wife and two kids to feel that I’m more at home here,” he said.

Dhafra’s players live and train in Abu Dhabi and travel 16 to 17 times per season for their games at the Hamdan bin Zayed Stadium in Madinat Zayed, an approximately 180-kilometre drive from Abu Dhabi.

Barral lives in a furnished apartment and spends much of the day with his family, sharing the household chores with his wife.

Barral has not had the time to travel around the country but says he will once he gets his driving licence.

“Work is my foremost priority,” he said. “I don’t have much time for leisure now at the start of the season.

“My work comes first and the little time I have, I spend with my family. Perhaps a time will come to explore and enjoy our time in the UAE, hopefully.”

Barral was something of a cult hero at Gijon, where fans chanted appeals for teammates to give the ball to him so that he could score.

He was a solid contributor, with 48 goals in 201 league matches, but not an overpowering one, and the chants were perhaps more hopeful than confident.

Gijon’s coach during Barral’s six seasons there was the rough-around-the-edges coach Manuel “Manolo” Preciado, and the player was quite fond of him and left stunned when Preciado died suddenly at the age of 54 in June 2012, the day before he was to be introduced as Villarreal’s coach.

Barral has a history of fouling more often than most forwards and he picked up a booking in his first appearance, a 3-1 away defeat to the champions Al Ain in their Arabian Gulf League opener.

Dhafra’s third league match is tonight, away to Al Ahli. “It’s not that I foul with intentions but just play as hard as I can, as the defender who tries his hardest to stop me. That’s how I play my game, hard but fair,” he said.

Barral has been part of several high-profile successes. He started and scored when Gijon held visiting Barcelona 1-1 to end the latter’s winning streak of 16 games in the Primera Liga in 2011.

The following year, Barral started and played 76 minutes at the Bernabeu, where Gijon ended Jose Mourinho’s nine-year streak of not losing a home league game.

“Those games were very special and if people still remember them, it must be more special than I thought it to be,” Barral said.

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