For four seasons, he was the undisputed star of the league, the headline act, demoralising defences and bulldozing his way past them with incredulous ease. He topped the scoring charts for the first three of those seasons, by some distance, before Al Jazira’s Mirko Vucinic took over his mantle.
Now Asamoah Gyan has left for China to join Shanghai SIPG, who paid €20 million (Dh81.3m) to Al Ain for his services.
The offer was just too tempting for both Al Ain and Gyan, whose weekly salary of £227,000 (Dh1.3m) puts him among the highest-paid football players in the world, to ignore. Fans across the club divide in UAE, though, will certainly miss his imposing presence.
With 95 goals from 83 Arabian Gulf League appearances, the Ghanaian is assured of a place in local football lore.
Jazira will be champions
The Arabian Gulf Super Cup has shown Al Ain are probably more than capable of defending their league title, with their new overseas players Ryan Babel, Fellipe Bastos and Emmanuel Emenike promising plenty for the coming months.
Al Jazira, however, could thwart the men from the Garden City this time after finishing second last season. The Abu Dhabi side have brought back coach Abel Braga – the Brazilian who in 2010/11 guided Jazira to their only league title – and they have also made some exciting changes to their foreign quartet.
Manuel Lanzini has left for West Ham United, Jonathan Pitroipa has moved to Al Nasr and Jucilei has gone to Chinese club Shandong Luneng.
Jazira have brought in Brazilian midfielder Thiago Neves, winger Jefferson Farfan of Peru and South Korean midfielder Park Jong-woo. With Vucinic staying put, Jazira probably have one of the most explosive foreign quartets in the league.
Now, if they can sort their defence, which was their Achilles heel last season, Jazira fans could be celebrating Braga’s return with their second league title.
Fans will finally fill the stands
Speaking of fans, this season might finally see them massing inside the stadiums, taking every available seat and cheering on their teams. At least, that is the hope of Arabian Gulf League officials, especially with this decision to encrypt all matches on television.
The clubs and the players certainly deserve bigger audiences. The AGL has some coveted stars playing in this league – Jorge Valdivia, Nilmar, Everton Ribeiro, Denilson, Jo, Vucinic, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdulrahman, Madjid Bougherra and Amr Al Sulaya, to name a few – and yet has some of the lowest attendances in Asia.
This needs to change. Fans need to start coming out to the stadiums and support their teams and players.
They, like Abdulrahman said last week, are always trying to give their best, playing in some of the toughest weather conditions anywhere in the world. The least they deserve is a bit of appreciation and encouragement from the stands.
Another goal-fest
Last season saw 562 goals scored in the 182 league matches – an average of three per game. Looking at the players moving to the AGL this season, you can expect those figures to be higher for 2015/16.
The Super Cup, with six goals, was an indication of things to come. Babel, Bastos, Emenike, Neves, Farfan, Valdivia, Nilmar, Denilson, Jo, Al Sulaya, Rodrigo Lima, David Barral, Joaquin Larrivey, Ishak Belfodil and Patrick Friday Eze are just some of the new attacking talents who have arrived over the summer. Spare a thought for the defenders.
Coaching carousel will slow down
Arabian Gulf League clubs have the potential to make this prediction look silly, but fans should see more of their clubs going through the season with the same coach.
Last season had Zlatko Dalic (Al Ain), Eric Gerets (Al Jazira), Cosmin Olaroiu (Al Ahli), Caio Junior (Al Shabab), Ivan Jovanovic (Al Nasr), Luis Garcia (Baniyas), Paulo Bonamigo (Sharjah) and Paulo Comelli (Emirates) stay in their jobs from start to finish, and that number is high keeping in mind the trigger-happy regimes at several clubs.
This year could have even more clubs investing in stability.
Scheduling chaos
In the past two weeks, the uncertainty over the dates of the Gulf Cup of Nations in Kuwait had sown confusion over the start of the season before the Pro League Committee decided to go ahead with the original schedule.
Expect the confusion to continue. The Kuwaiti football federation is unlikely to rescind its decision to postpone the Gulf Cup to next year, despite pressure on it from their government to hold the tournament this December.
If the Kuwaiti federation stands firm and the Gulf Cup is not held this year, league will have to reschedule since it has allotted a one-month break for the regional tournament.
arizvi@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter at NatSportUAE
Business Insights
- Canada and Mexico are significant energy suppliers to the US, providing the majority of oil and natural gas imports
- The introduction of tariffs could hinder the US's clean energy initiatives by raising input costs for materials like nickel
- US domestic suppliers might benefit from higher prices, but overall oil consumption is expected to decrease due to elevated costs
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Marathon results
Men:
1. Titus Ekiru(KEN) 2:06:13
2. Alphonce Simbu(TAN) 2:07:50
3. Reuben Kipyego(KEN) 2:08:25
4. Abel Kirui(KEN) 2:08:46
5. Felix Kemutai(KEN) 2:10:48
Women:
1. Judith Korir(KEN) 2:22:30
2. Eunice Chumba(BHR) 2:26:01
3. Immaculate Chemutai(UGA) 2:28:30
4. Abebech Bekele(ETH) 2:29:43
5. Aleksandra Morozova(RUS) 2:33:01
Honeymoonish
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Elie%20El%20Samaan%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENour%20Al%20Ghandour%2C%20Mahmoud%20Boushahri%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
City's slump
L - Juventus, 2-0
D - C Palace, 2-2
W - N Forest, 3-0
L - Liverpool, 2-0
D - Feyenoord, 3-3
L - Tottenham, 4-0
L - Brighton, 2-1
L - Sporting, 4-1
L - Bournemouth, 2-1
L - Tottenham, 2-1
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
Company%20profile%20
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SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20M3%20MACBOOK%20AIR%20(13%22)
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Mission%3A%20Impossible%20-%20Dead%20Reckoning%20Part%20One
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Masters%20of%20the%20Air
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirectors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Cary%20Joji%20Fukunaga%2C%20Dee%20Rees%2C%20Anna%20Boden%2C%20Ryan%20Fleck%2C%20Tim%20Van%20Patten%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Austin%20Butler%2C%20Callum%20Turner%2C%20Anthony%20Boyle%2C%20Barry%20Keoghan%2C%20Sawyer%20Spielberg%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
ZAYED SUSTAINABILITY PRIZE
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
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Structural%20weaknesses%20facing%20Israel%20economy
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Star%20Wars%3A%20Episode%20I%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Phantom%20Menace
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The Outsider
Stephen King, Penguin
ROUTE%20TO%20TITLE
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