Omar Abdulrahman: Our target is to win the AFC Champions League final
The AFC Website: Omar Abdulrahman contemplates the question briefly, but it is more out of courtesy than serious consideration. “A footballer,” he says with a broad smile, an answer to the query just posed: if he weren’t a footballer, what would he be? “A footballer,” he says. “Only.”
Perhaps that much is expected. Captain of his club and the heartbeat of his country’s national team, the Al Ain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) star has dreamed about forging a career in the beautiful game since he began playing street football as a child with his brothers Ahmed, Mohammed and Khalid.
Much, though, has changed since. Abdulrahman has grown into a playmaker of extreme talent, constantly lauded for his performances, consistently linked with a move to a major European league, now without doubt one of the most recognisable footballers in Asia.
Unsurprisingly, with the fame has come the fanfare. Interviews are routinely requested, autograph always sought, an endless supply of selfies taken. Yet Abdulrahman is content to just take it all in his stride.
“The love of the fans is a treasure,” he says relaxing into his seat at a hotel in Al Ain, on the eve of yet another important match for his club. “And it’s a treasure I should cherish. Without them, I wouldn’t be here. They have every right to see me, and it’s my right to see the fans who show their love. When I need to get away, I know I can go to places that I can enjoy in peace.”
He has not found much refuge lately. Abdulrahman’s current schedule is packed tight, with Al Ain set to appear in a first AFC Champions League final in 11 years and the UAE national team closer than they have been in decades to booking a spot at a second World Cup.
With fixtures coming thick and fast, he is eager to take the next step. Abdulrahman has starred for the UAE at various high-profile tournaments: the 2012 Olympics, the 2013 Gulf Cup, the 2015 AFC Asian Cup. At the Olympics, he impressed so much that he earned a trial with Manchester City. At the Gulf Cup, he scored a brilliant virtuoso goal in the final against Iraq as the UAE captured the title for the second time and was later voted the tournament’s most valuable player.
At the AFC Asian Cup, Abdulrahman shone throughout to help his team finish third – their best result in the competition on foreign soil – although there are lingering regrets about what might have been having stunned defending champions Japan to reach the semi-final.
Up against hosts Australia, the UAE were beaten 2-0 in Newcastle, conceding both goals in the opening 15 minutes. They never recovered, and Abdulrahman sat slumped on the pitch at full-time, his shirt pulled over his face. Understandably, the result still rankles.
“Of course, it is my worst memory in football,” he says. “At that moment I was dreaming of getting to the final and we had the ability to do that. Nobody expected us to get to that stage, and so we were all very disappointed to exit at that point.
“We had aspirations of finishing first or at least reaching the final. But fate was not on our side that day.”
It was a second semi-final defeat in consecutive years for Abdulrahman, having been eliminated with Al Ain at the penultimate stage of the 2014 AFC Champions League after the loss to Saudi giants Al Hilal.
Nevertheless, the headlines and the articles have focused on the UAE’s No10, but Abdulrahman insists he would rather shy away from the praise. It is not only him, he often repeats. It is a collective effort.
“It’s a normal situation, and I’m very proud of that, but I don’t pay it too much attention,” he says. “I have a role to play on the pitch, and I have to focus on what the coach asks of me.
“The media can praise you today and criticise you tomorrow. I just hope I’m up to the coach’s expectations. And, anyway, it’s my teammates who help me reach those standards.”
It conveys a wise head on still-young shoulders. Abdulrahman has come a long way since his professional debut in 2009, maturing as a player and as a person. It is evidenced at present by his captaincy of Al Ain, and more obviously by his recent 25th birthday. No longer merely a precocious talent, he is now expected to lead not only by example through his play, but in inspiring his colleagues, as well.
He remains fully focused on that, amid the pivotal matches for club and country, even despite the recent birthday. There were no real festivities on September 20, he says, other than cake-cutting with his teammates at Al Ain training, for celebrations were postponed until after the two-legged AFC Champions League semi-final with El Jaish and the World Cup qualifiers with Thailand and Saudi.
For now, the AFC Champions League final is his focus, for there is a glint in Abdulrahman’s eye whenever the topic is mentioned. Al Ain remain the only UAE club to have been crowned continental champions, back in 2003 when the competition was rebranded and they defeated Thailand’s BEC Tero Sasana in the final. They returned to the showpiece two years later, but suffered defeat to Al Ittihad.
This year offers their greatest chance of clinching the trophy, of Abdulrahman finally adding the one club title not yet on his Al Ain CV. In seven years with the first team, he has won three UAE league championships, two President’s Cups, one League Cup and the Super Cup three times. The AFC Champions League would therefore complete the set.
Abdulrahman is determined to win it, reflected in his role this year in which he has been voted man of the match eight times from 12 matches to carry Al Ain to this month’s final. As one of the main criteria for deciding Asian player of the year, it places Abdulrahman in a strong position to this time go one better than last November, when he finished second to countryman Ahmed Khalil – the first Emirati to receive the award. Yet, true to his character, Abdulrahman maintains he is not concerned solely with individual prizes.
“I don’t think of being the best player, all I’m thinking of now is going to the final and doing well with the national team,” he says. “The AFC Champions League means far more to me than being Asia’s best player.
“I hope to be number one with the whole team. I want to go to the final and win the championship. If I win the best player and we lose the championship, it doesn’t mean anything – we’ve lost everything. It only matters if you win the final. So I hope to win both.”
Words that portray a player who believes there is much left to accomplish.
