Omar Abdulrahman — The Prince of Asian football
You may not have heard of him before, but Al Ain’s Omar Abdulrahman may be Asia’s best player.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) recently signaled its intent to become the world’s leading football confederation with the launch of its Vision and Mission. The aim of the AFC is to focus on the success of Asian teams on the world’s biggest stages and strengthen the level of fan engagement to ensure football is the number one sport throughout the continent.
The quality of Asian football is no doubt improving. While the influx of cash has certainly put Asian football, and more specifically Chinese football, on the radar of European footballers and agents, there is still a huge concern among national football associations about how this will affect the development of local footballers. In countries where population figures alone should suggest there’s enough talent to be found, there remains skepticism about how good the homegrown Asian footballers are. But there remains little doubt about which one is the best. 25-year-old Al Ain captain Omar Abdulrahman, Asian football’s crown jewel.
To try and put into words just how good Omar is will ultimately do him injustice. He plays a different game to everyone else when he is on a football pitch. A Ferrari among Nissan Micras. He is the complete modern attacker. Pace, movement, dribbling, passing, goals, assists. No words in the Calcio vocabulary exist to accurately describe him. Italians use the term Trequartista to not just classify somebody as a number 10 but to imply a footballer with grace and talent. In that regard, Omar should be the blueprint. But he provides more flexibility than a defined number 10. He has played in every position across Al Ain’s front four; both wings, number 10, false nine. He drops deep into midfield when his team isn’t in possession, waiting to make his move. There is no set position for him. Team mates search for him at every opportunity and he inevitably creates the space to launch Al Ain attacks like Napoleon on the battlefields of France.
The stats speak for themselves. 51 goals and 94 assists in 203 senior appearances for Al Ain, many of those appearances coming long before he reached his peak as a footballer. Add to that the countless pre-assists and mesmerising build up play all started from the magic left foot of the boy known as “Amoory”.
“I never saw a player like this in Asia” said the Brazilian forward Leonardo last year, a man also producing impressive displays in Asia at Jeonbuk Motors and now Al Jazira. “I play against China teams, Australia teams and Japanese teams, and I never saw one player like this”. It’s the common consensus among all pundits and supporters of Asian football. At his best he is untouchable.
But with great talent inevitably comes great responsibility. This is seen as the golden generation of UAE football. A team with enough class and profile to finally step out of the footballing shadows and replicate the fairy tale World Cup qualification of 1990. It should be a team charging to success. Omar Abdulrahman providing the bullets for clinical strikers like Ali Mabkhout and Ahmed Khalil should be enough fear into every national team they face. But their World Cup qualification hopes have been left in tatters after defeats home and away to Australia. A sobbing national coach resigned and the team is in disarray. All this is even more disappointing for UAE supporters considering the excellent football they produced to win the Gulf Cup of Nations in 2013; Omar was voted the best player in the tournament. But with the national team’s latest failure, fingers in the media have inevitably been pointed at their golden boy and like all mercurial talents they usually take the blame for under-performing team mates.
He faces the same pressure at club level. The captain of his boyhood club for the last four seasons, he dragged them to the brink of history last October. A nine month long Asian Champions League campaign saw Abdulrahman star throughout. They were on the brink of exiting the competition in the group stages when he scored a late free kick in their final home game that was the catapult for their progression. He impressed again in the knockout stages providing more crucial goals and breath-taking assists, scoring home and away in the semi final. They met Korean powerhouse Jeonbuk in the final. The stage was set for Al Ain and Asian football’s biggest talent to show what they were capable of. In the second leg of the final, Al Ain won a penalty to level the aggregate score 3–3. Surprisingly Brazilian striker Douglas, not Omar, took the penalty and blazed it over the bar. Jeonbuk held on for the victory and Al Ain still haven’t recovered from the loss six months later.
Omar not taking such a crucial penalty was seen by many as a captain shirking his responsibilities and not stepping up in the big moment. Logic would simply suggest that a striker taking a penalty is the normal routine but the fact that Omar has taken every penalty at the club since then has done little to diminish criticism. It’s the nature of football fandom and punditry. Take aim at those lauded for their skill and hope for their failure rather than appreciate their talent. If such a moment presented itself again, there’s no questioning who would step up.
The next dilemma for Omar is perhaps the most obvious of all. Will there be a move to Europe? The ultimate test for every overseas footballer, according to those in European football anyway. Manchester City came calling after his impressive displays in the 2012 Olympics and he was offered a contract after a successful trial but his refusal to sign was put down to work permit issues — although most believe it was just too soon for the 21-year-old at the time. To understand why he hasn’t made the move is to look beyond the game. Financially he is secure, he is treated like royalty at home and he has two brothers who play with him at Al Ain. It’s a situation impossible to replicate at any other club. It is very hard for an Emirati player to adapt to the lifestyle outside their homes and a player risks tarnishing their reputation, even somebody as skilled as Omar Abdulrahman. He has already cited Arsenal as being a club he feels he would be a good fit for. There are also links to Barcelona after he faced them in a friendly in December.
For now we will just have to admire Omar’s brilliance from a distance, but should he eventually make the move to Europe then the world would truly be introduced to Asia’s greatest player.
