Dubai: Al Ahli have agreed a fee for the signing of Brazilian striker Luiz Adriano from Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk.
Club President Abdullah Saeed Al Naboodah said on social media late on Wednesday that “all formalities have been confirmed” and the 28-year-old Brazilian would be heading to Dubai pending a medical and the agreement of personal terms.
Al Ahli have already released Luiz Jimenez to cross-city neighbours Al Nasr, while retaining South Korean Kwon Kyung Won and Brazilian Everton Ribeiro along with the injured Jociel da Silva. Former Liverpool player Oussama Assaidi also seems to be on his way out.
Born in Porto Alegre, Adriano began his career at hometown club Internacional before joining Shakhtar in 2007 for 3 million euros.
Since then, he has been a vital part of the club’s success, becoming all-time leading scorer in October last year, when he was also called up to the Brazilian national team.
Al Ahli have been consolidating their squad with an eye on the Asian Champions League quarter-finals, that they have reached for the first time in their history.
Adriano has been in fine form in the Uefa Champions League last season.
Shakhtar finished second in their group, with Adriano equalling Lionel Messi’s record of five goals in a Uefa Champions League game and matching Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of nine goals in the whole group stage. As a result he was named MVP of the group stage.
Adriano scored his five goals against Bate Borisov of Belarus becoming only the second player to achieve the feat after Messi. His hat-trick took just eleven minutes, the third fastest ever in the competition.
He scored three goals in a seven-minute span, the quickest ever, and his four first-half goals were a record for a player in the competition.
With his fourth and fifth strikes of the same match, Adriano overcame Andriy Vorobey to become Shakhtar’s all-time leading scorer with 117 goals.
