Every football fan knows who are Franz Beckenbauer and Johann Cruyff. But only a fanatic would recognise Gunter Netzer and Piet Keizer.
Two great players, who peaked just before their countries’ signature World Cup performances.
In his own, more modest way, the fate of UAE striker Zuhair Bakheet was similar.
Arguably the most naturally talented player of the UAE squad that would play in the 1990 World Cup, Bakheet hit the heights at the Gulf Cup in Saudi Arabia in 1988. At times, Bakheet, 20, was almost unplayable. He scored four goals – against Bahrain and Kuwait in two victories, and a double in the draw with Saudi Arabia – to overshadow the contribution by the UAE’s greatest player Adnan Al Talyani and fellow Al Wasl striker Fahad Khamees.
Bakheet would have a great career with his club Al Wasl and country, albeit one so often overshadowed by disciplinary problems on and off the pitch, earning him the unwanted reputation of being the bad boy of Emirati football.
It seemed nothing would stop him from becoming the finest Emirati player of all. Despite playing in five Gulf Cups and three Asian Cups, that did not happen. At the World Cup in Italy, he appeared only fleetingly, as a second-half substitute in the UAE’s opening match against Colombia.
Diehard Emirati fans will always remember his defining contributions at Gulf Cup ’88, where he shared the top scorer award with Iraq’s Ahmed Radhi.
Radhi had represented Iraq at the 1986 World Cup.
In 1990, Bakheet emulated that achievement with the UAE, but, sadly, not in the way that his extravagant form in 1988 had suggested.
akhaled@thenational.ae
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