ABU DHABI // With every Arabian Gulf League team seeming to strengthen their squad this summer, Omar Abdulrahman has warned his Al Ain teammates to brace for a challenging season ahead.
Al Ain’s rivals have been busy in the transfer market this summer bringing in players like Denilson and Jorge Valdivia (at Al Wahda), Thiago Neves and Jefferson Farfan (at Al Jazira), Mark Milligan, Joaquin Larrivey and Ishak Belfodil (at Baniyas), Nilmar (at Al Nasr) and Lima (at Al Ahli).
The AGL champions, on the other hand, have seen record-breaking striker Asamoah Gyan leave for Shanghai and Abdulrahman, who had built a great partnership with the Ghanaian over four seasons, believes Al Ain will feel his absence despite the addition of Dutch winger Ryan Babel, Brazilian midfielder Fellipe Bastos and Nigerian striker Emmanuel Emenike.
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“Al Ain have recruited a lot of good players and I am confident the players we have brought in to replace Gyan will contribute towards the success of the team,” Abdulrahman said yesterday at an event to unveil the team’s Nike-designed kit for the coming season.
“I had a good partnership with Gyan and enjoyed playing alongside him, but that is not the important thing. The important thing is that all 11 players should complement each other and that is what we are going to try and achieve. Hopefully, playing together as a team, we will achieve success.
“But it is not going to be easy. This season is going to be very different as we have new foreign players and all the other clubs have also strengthened their team with some quality players, at both the foreign and Emirati level.
“So I believe it is going to be a really tough season for all the teams. Having said that, I believe we have prepared really well for the season and I am sure we will put on a good show.”
Al Ain have already started the season on a winning note, defeating Moroccan league champions Wydad 5-4 on penalties in the UAE-Morocco Super Cup in Casablanca over the weekend.
They are expected to start their domestic campaign on Saturday with the season-opening Super Cup clash against President’s Cup winners Al Nasr, and Abdulrahman is hoping Al Ain can keep that winning momentum going. The date of the match, however, could change.
“Winning is a habit,” the 23-year-old Emirati international said. “So it is important that we start the season by winning the Super Cup. That is our target. We beat the Moroccan team in Casablanca and we want to keep the momentum going.”
Al Ain played in front of a packed stadium in Casablanca and Abdulrahman is hoping to see similar crowds at the stadiums here in the coming season, especially since all the league matches will be encrypted and shown on pay TV only.
“We as players deliver everything we have on the pitch, even when we are not fully fit and playing through pain,” he said. “When the fans fill the stadiums, it is a great boost for us and lifts our morale.
“We recently played in Casablanca and the stadium was full. We hope to see such atmosphere at our stadiums because it really lifts the players and the team. If there are few spectators in the stadium, it could have an adverse effect on the performance of the players.”
arizvi@thenational.ae
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