Pinto prepares a “young” team for the World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers

The UAE national football team will begin the next internal gathering in Dubai starting tomorrow, and will continue until the 17th of this month, and will include two friendly matches against the Kuwaiti and Lebanese national teams, in preparation for the joint qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup, as well as in preparation for the upcoming continental competition, when the team will compete in the Asian Cup finals. In Qatar next January.

The new list for the national team, which was announced by Portuguese coach Pinto, the day before yesterday, revealed the coach’s tendency to rely more on young players, and to prepare a young team for the World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers, as the new list included 29 players, 24 of whom were under the age of thirty, and they are: Zayed Sultan (17). years), Hazem Muhammad (18 years), Khaled Tawhid (19 years), Sultan Adel (19 years), Omar Hussein (20 years), Issa Khalfan (20 years), Hareb Abdullah (20 years), and Abdullah Al-Attas (22 years). Ahmed Mahmoud (22 years old), Ali Saleh (23 years old), Majed Rashid (23 years old), Khalifa Al Hammadi (24 years old), Ahmed Jameel (24 years old), Abdul Rahman Saleh (24 years old), and Abdullah Idris (24 years old), Tahnoun Al-Zaabi (24 years old), Yahya Nader (25 years old), Yahya Al-Ghassani (25 years old), Abdullah Ramadan (25 years old), Muhammad Al-Shamsi (26 years old), Khaled Al-Hashimi (26 years old), Khaled Al-Dhanhani (26 years old), and Muhammad Al-Attas. (26 years old), and Ali Salmeen (28 years old).

On the other hand, there are five players between the ages of 30 and 36 years old: Fabio Lima (30 years old), Ali Mabkhout (33 years old), Caio Canedo (33 years old), Khaled Issa (34 years old), and Ali Khasif (36 years old).

The coach excluded prominent veteran players, such as Shabab Al-Ahly player Walid Abbas (38 years old), Al Ain player Bandar Al Ahbabi (33 years old), Sharjah goalkeeper Adel Al Hosani (34 years old), and Al Ain player Ahmed Barman (29 years old). There are questions as to whether… These players are temporarily excluded due to injuries or a decline in the technical level of some of them, or is the coach seeking to rely on young faces instead of old elements.

National team coach Paulo Bento is betting on the elements he chose in the new list, in order to implement his technical plans, whether through internal and external preparation camps or friendly matches, in order to bring the national team to the required stage of readiness, and prepare a young team capable of giving for a long time, especially since The upcoming camp is the third for the national team during the era of the new coach, who had previously announced that he has five goals that he seeks to achieve with the UAE national team, the most important of which is qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.

For his part, the former Al-Nasr team manager and technical analyst, Khaled Obaid, confirmed that the national team coach, Pinto, has specific visions for the coming period, through the process of selecting the elements, indicating that the choices in the new list are good, but there are elements that were not chosen that deserved to be in the national team. However, at the same time, he expects that she will have chances of being selected for the national team after the league is currently suspended.

Khaled Obaid told Emirates Al-Youm: “There are some undisclosed names, whether in goalkeepers or midfielders, who are eligible to join the national team.”

He stressed that although selecting young players is a good thing, the coach needs players with long experience, especially since he has upcoming duties in which the team needs experienced players, indicating that he expects Walid Abbas to be excluded due to the injury he recently suffered. . Khaled Obaid continued: “The team needs to give young players the opportunity, as the team has an important tournament ahead of it, and it needs elements that have vitality and a desire to be in the team.”

• The national team begins its next gathering in Dubai tomorrow in preparation for playing two friendly matches against Kuwait and Lebanon this month.