Dubai: Al Ahli believe that their latest acquisition Rodrigo Jose Lima dos Santos from Portuguese side Benfica will serve its purpose of delivering the AFC Champions League crown to the Red Knights this season.
The club confirmed a two-year deal for Brazilian Lima late on Friday, with the 32-year-old scheduled to join his new teammates at their training base in Italy this week.
After two seasons at Braga, where he scored 26 goals from 60 starts, Lima made a huge impact after joining the Jorge Jesus-coached Benfica in 2012, where he netted 70 goals in 144 matches.
The Red Knights failed in defending their Arabian Gulf League (AGL) crown last season and ended in seventh position after their goal machine Grafite departed to Qatar’s Al Sadd during the winter transfer window.
Despite missing a foreign striker, Al Ahli still managed to get past new AGL champions and 2003 AFC Champions League winners Al Ain to advance into a quarter-final meeting with Naft of Iran, with the first leg set for Tehran on August 26.
“The priority this season is the AFC Champions League. We have waited a long time for a quality striker and our wait has ended at last,” a club official told Gulf News.
“Last season should best be forgotten as we suffered due to various reasons. But this season is going to be different. At last we have a striker who will hopefully make a difference to the side with the experience he has of playing at so many different clubs.
“This player has travelled widely and that means he has the experience needed to fit into our coach’s [Cosmin Olaroiu] strategy of deploying a lone striker up front. We can expect a good performance from him.”
