Al Shaab sign up Abulhail

Abdul Wahab Abulhail, Iraq's national team midfielder, joined Al Shaab club yesterday. Abulhail has signed a one-year contract with the club.

The Iraqi midfielder has replaced Morocco's Meloudi Mozakar who played for Al Shaab in the FA Cup.

Mozakar, however, couldn't put up a good performance. Omran Abdullah Omran, the Al Shaab Club's assistant General Secretary, yesterday confirmed the new signing to Gulf News.

"We signed Abulhail and he has become Al Shaab player from today. He is an excellent midfielder and just the type of player we need. We hope he will be fit in time to play his first match with us in the league next week," said Omran.

Abulhail will play along with Al Shaab striker Sheikh Diop of Senegal. Al Shaab will also be looking for a third professional to play with them in the Arab Clubs Cup Winners Cup which will be held in Qatar in December.

The Arab Cup Winnners Cup regulations allow each club to field three professionals. But in the UAE, only two professional players are allowed to play in domestic tournaments.

Abdul Wahab Abulhail claimed he rejected an offer from Greece club AIK Athens. Athens were interested in signing Abulhail after the Iraq-Iran match during the World Cup qualifiers last month in Tehran.

"They sent a letter to the Iraqi FA asking for me. But I prefer to play in the UAE since the UAE league is one of the strongest league tournaments in the Arab and Gulf countries."

Abulhail said that the Al Shaab first contacted him after the UAE-Iraq friendly held last August prior to the start of the World Cup qualifiers.

Abdul Wahab Abulhail, the 25-year-old Iraqi, started his career playing for Al Talaba. He played seven years for them. During this period, he joined the Iraq's national team in 1994 and stayed as a regular national team member until now.

Abulhail played the last two years as a professional player for the Lebanese club Al Ekha Alay. He played for Iraq in the Asian Cup finals in Lebanon last year. And recently he represented Iraq in the World Cup qualifiers. Iraq finished fourth in Group A.

Abdul Wahab Abulhail will be the third Iraqi player in the UAE First division league. The other two are Razaq Farhan of Sharjah and Qahttan Gethayir of Al Ittihad. Both players had played along with Abulhail during Iraq's World Cup qualifiers recently.

Meanwhile Al Shabab Club signed Chilean striker Marcelo Corales. The unconvincing performance by striker Samuel Kujo of Surinam made them go for a new player.

Kujo played only three matches with Shabab in the FA Cup. The club's board also decided to bring back the Brazilian striker Nelson.

They had sidelined him last month for giving a chance to Cameroon youngster Mamoon. Al Shabab, however prefered to sign Nelson because he is more experienced.