This season saw a record breaking effort from Ghanaian Asamoah Gyan for Al Ain with the highest number of goals in a single season (31). However, in that list of talented footballers, not even a single Emirati features. Ali Ahmed Mabkhout of Al Jazira came in at 14th position with 11 and Nawaf Mubarak Musabh of Baniyas with 10 goals in 18th position, are the only two Emirati’s in the top twenty.
The view that the existence of high to mid-profile foreigners in the league educates and develops local talent is prevalent, and yet again has gone unproven.
You could argue against, on the context that the recent performances of the UAE National Team with the likes of the talented and young Abdul Rahman’s and how the league has nurtured them along with the help of their expensive imports. But it seems like there are just a hand few that had benefited from the presence of these super stars.
Given all this, one has to ask: Are foreigners really helping the local talent? Again, the justification is probably more financially orientated than reasonable. It does not mean that we have to get rid of them or promote them. Certainly, it will be useful to benefit a little from the knowledge of these foreign professionals. It is just that the time has come for the authorities to take a step back and look at the policies involved and do an overall cost and opportunity analysis for the benefit of the local talent and eventually – UAE Football.
And I for one would be more than happy to share some of the thoughts to achieve this distant goal.
Writtten by Shuaib B Ahmed
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