Abu Dhabi: Al Wahda are poised to replace their departed midfielder Denilson, who has joined Cruzeiro in his homeland on a six-month loan deal, with another Brazilian.
The most likely recruit is the 23-year-old forward Tiago Alves Sales, whose Wikipedia page on Tuesday actually listed him as an Al Wahda player.
But the Abu Dhabi club have not confirmed this nor their reported interest in the 27-year-old Flamengo winger, Everton Cardoso da Silva.
Tiago Alves’s parent club is Santos in Brazil, but his career has been peripatetic since then, involving a series of loan spells.
Last season, he scored an impressive 13 times in 18 games for South Korea’s Seongnam FC, while his fellow countryman Everton has registered nine goals in 71 appearances for Flamengo since 2014.
Al Wahda already have two leading South Americans on their books: Sebastian Tagliabue, the Argentinian striker who was last season’s Arabian Gulf League leading goalscorer, and the Chilean playmaker Jorge Valdivia.
Denilson’s exit after only one season at the club – the highlight of which was his winning goal in the Arabian Gulf Cup final success over Al Shabab in April – was confirmed by Ahmad Al Rumaithi, the club’s president. He said: “We have agreed to loan Denilson to Cruzeiro for six months until the end of January 2017. The player will leave Brazil on Tuesday in order to complete his contract.”
Meanwhile, another South American star could also be leaving Abu Dhabi – Al Jazira’s Peruvian winger, Jefferson Farfan, who joined the club from Germany’s Schalke 04 only last summer.
The 31-year-old made just 11 appearances in all competitions for the Pride of Abu Dhabi last season after suffering a serious ankle ligament tear in November, and was last month the subject of reported interest from Argentina’s River Plate.
On Monday evening, in an interview with the America TV website, Farfan said: “I will discuss my future with the club’s administration because at the moment I have offers from clubs in South America, but for me the most important thing is to return to Europe.”
Elsewhere in Abu Dhabi, Bani Yas are set to name a new manager by the end of the week, Gulf News understands.
The new man is likely to be the 59-year-old Colombian, Reinaldo Rueda, as we reported last week.
The Sky Blues have reportedly offered Rueda, who led Honduras and Ecuador to the past two World Cup finals and who is currently in charge of Atletico Nacional, a contract worth $1.3 million (Dh4.7 million) a year.
The negotiations for Rueda have been complicated by the fact that he has steered Atletico Nacional to the Copa Libertadores final against Independiente, the second leg of which takes place on July 28.
Bani Yas, who parted company with Dr Abdullah Misfir at the end of the season after finishing ninth in the AGL, were also keeping tabs on the ex-Paraguay boss Ramon Diaz and Jose Luis Sierra – who resigned from Chile’s Colo-Colo two weeks ago.
Elsewhere, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the United Arab Emirates Football Association (UAEFA) and the Abu Dhabi Sports Council (ADSC) signed an agreement on Tuesday, to host the 2016 AFC Awards at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi on December 1 this year.
AFC General Secretary Dato’ Windsor John and UAEFA General Secretary Mohammad Hazzam Al Daheri put pen to paper on behalf of the respective organisations.
It was decided in March at the AFC’s Executive Committee (ExCo) meeting in Kuala Lumpur to name the UAE capital as host city for the awards.
This is the second time that the AFC Awards will be hosted in Abu Dhabi. The first time was in 2006 and it was the first time the event had been held outside Kuala Lumpur, which is home to the AFC Headquarters. The AFC’s 2015 Annual Awards were held in New Delhi.
