El Shahat: The Match Star Award Should be Granted to My Teammates and UAE Football Fans
Receiving the FIFA Match Award as the best player for distinguished performance in the match of Al Ain against ES Tunis, El Shahat expressed his deep pleasure of winning the CAF Champions and qualifying to the semifinal match. “I am so happy for such a great and deserved victory. Actually, the award should be granted to the whole team and the UAE and Ainawi fans who were behind us before, during and even after the match.”
He added: “The award is a motivation for me to push myself to the limit and along with my teammates we will strive to realize our big ambitions and make all our loyal fans happy.”
Commenting on seeing Rayan in the squad again after being injured for a while, he said: “Rayan is a professional and international player who could easily make the difference. He is an added value and valuable asset to the team. Also, it is important to see him again as this means he will be back to the UAE National Team in the Asia Cup- UAE 2019 scheduled to kickoff next month. I wish him all the best with Al Ain and the UAE National Team.”
On the secret behind the team’s excellence and stunning performance and actions happened in the last minutes of the match, he said: “We played with full concentration and immense desire to follow the head coach instructions to win. Thanks God we were able to win and deservedly qualify to the semifinal match. Absolutely, winning is always a motivation to keep going with great desire to make the history. As for what happened in the last minutes, I was surprised by the opponent’s players trying to hit me following one of the attacks. It was strange anyway!”
