Ali Khaled

Arab News • 29th July 2020

Arab nations cannot afford to ignore the rise of women’s football

DUBAI: On Sept. 25, 2005, a football match that few people will remember or even have heard of, took place in Amman, with hosts Jordan comfortably thrashing an overwhelmed Bahrain 9-0. But the result mattered little. This was a football match with a difference for the beaten team; it was the first time that Bahrain’s national women’s team - established in 2003 - had taken to a football field.

Arab News • 23rd July 2020

Will Jorge Pinto’s South American revolution save the UAE’s World Cup chances?

DUBAI: For the UAE Football Association, it’s the last throw of the dice as far as reaching the 2022 World Cup is concerned. On Wednesday, new national team coach Jorge Luis Pinto, laid out a roadmap to the 2022 World Cup as he prepared to take charge of a training session with the Emirati squad for the first time...

Arab News • 17th July 2020

Karim Benzema steps out of the shadows as Real Madrid win La Liga

DUBAI: The big smile said it all. After 11 long, often trying, years, Karim Benzema was finally the king of the Bernabeu. When on Aug. 29, 2009 the 21-year-old Frenchman made his La Liga debut for Real Madrid against Deportivo La Coruna, he lined up alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, Raul, Xabi Alonso, Marcelo and a host of other Galacticos and internationals. Most of those stellar names have retired or moved on now, but Benzema is still going.

Arab News • 12th July 2020

UFC Fight Island delivers goods as Kamaru Usman reigns supreme in Abu Dhabi

DUBAI: It might have taken place behind closed doors, but Fight Island in Abu Dhabi delivered on its promises, with Kamaru Usman retaining his welterweight title after defeating Jorge Masvidal in UFC 251’s main event on Yas Island.

Arab News • 6th July 2020

F1 season kicks off with astonishing, chaotic race in Austria

DUBAI: Formula 1 is back. And, for the majority of the season’s much delayed first race, it looked business as usual. Mercedes dominance, Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton leading the charge, and Red Bull providing the challenge. But this, despite Bottas’ eventual victory, would prove anything but an ordinary race, for so many reasons.

Arab News • 26th June 2020

Mohamed Salah stands alone as the greatest Arab footballer of all

DUBAI: Egypt’s Mohammed Aboutrika is arguably the strongest challenger. There are strong cases for Tunisian Tarak Dhiab and the Algerians Rabah Madjer and Riyad Mahrez. Also in the conversation could be Saudi Arabia’s Majed Abdullah and Sami Al-Jaber, as well the Kuwaitis Jasem Yaqoub, Fathi Kameel and Faisal Al-Dakheel. But it’s hard to argue that Mohamed Salah now stands alone as the greatest Arab footballer of all time.

Arab News • 16th June 2020

Kuwait’s crowning glory turns into a nightmare at Spain 1982 World Cup

DUBAI: Those with only a passing knowledge of Asian, Middle Eastern or Gulf football will know how this story ends. Badly. But dig a little deeper into the history of Kuwaiti football and you’ll find that the infamous match against France at the 1982 World Cup in Spain does not deserve to overshadow the decade-long journey of a golden generation of players.

Arab News • 13th June 2020

1982 World Cup: How Algeria stunned West Germany, fell to an epic swindle

DUBAI: The 1982 World Cup in Spain has a strong claim to being one of the best ever. It boasted a stellar line-up of individual players, three great teams, a series of legendary matches, and great weather. It is likely most remembered, however, for its semi-final controversy, its major scandal and, arguably, the greatest World Cup shock of all time.

Arab News • 9th June 2020

How the UAE earned their day among the world’s best at Italia 90

DUBAI: For the UAE, Group D spelled the Group of Death. West Germany, Yugoslavia, Colombia. As World Cup debuts go, this was the stuff of nightmares. Except, in hindsight, the group of Emirati players who had already pulled off a footballing miracle by qualifying to the 1990 World Cup in Italy would not have had it any other way.

Arab News • 6th June 2020

Why 2020 feels empty without a big football summer tournament

DUBAI: Even-numbered years are the best ones — just ask any football fan. But while 2020 will be remembered for many things, football — or the lack of it — will be well down a depressingly long list. For the first time in six decades, an even-numbered year will be without a major summer football tournament.

Arab News • 3rd June 2020

How long will athletes be allowed to take a stand against social injustice?

DUBAI: Whoever came up with the fanciful notion of keeping sport and politics separate certainly never lived in the Middle East. In a region where every aspect of life is shaped by socio-political factors, few sportsmen or women have ever publicly taken ideological stands. Quite literally, their livelihoods, their lives, depend on it.

Arab News • 2nd June 2020

The day Tunisia made World Cup history in Argentina

DUBAI: When Tunisia landed in Argentina for the 1978 World Cup, no Arab or African nation had ever won a match at the competition. Egypt had been the first to try their luck at the second edition of the tournament, the 1934 World Cup in Italy, and though they played commendably against a strong Hungarian team, they ended up losing 4-2 in controversial circumstances.

Arab News • 31st May 2020

The 10 best Arab footballers to play in Europe

DUBAI: Germany’s Bundesliga is back. Spain’s La Liga, Serie A in Italy and the English Premier League, and maybe even the Champions League, are set to follow soon. This means the likes of Mohamed Salah, Riyad Mahrez and others will once again be on our screens chasing some of the game’s top prizes. As football takes tentative steps back toward normality, we take a look at some of the best Arab talent to make their mark in Europe’s top leagues.

Arab News • 25th May 2020

Arsenal’s 1989 title win at Anfield: Football’s most dramatic finale

DUBAI: It’s up for grabs now. If you recognize these words, then you probably know one of the most dramatic moments in football history. On May 26, 1989, Arsenal went to Anfield needing to beat reigning champions Liverpool by two goals to win their first league title in 18 years. Everyone thought it was an impossible mission.

Arab News • 25th May 2020

Dubai firm bringing to life story of football’s first ever world champions

DUBAI: Before Bobby Moore and the gleaming Jules Rimet. Before Garrincha, Pele and Jogo Bonito ("the beautiful game.") Before Italy’s two World Cups in a row. And before Uruguay claimed the first ever FIFA crown in 1930. There was a different World Cup, and more mysterious winners. And they came from the North-East of England. West Auckland Town Football club may not be familiar to many football fans around the world, but they can lay claim to being football’s first ever world champions.

Arab News • 14th May 2020

Michael Jordan’s story does not need a nice guy makeover

DUBAI: So Michael Jordan wasn’t such a nice guy when it came to basketball. The only surprise is that this has come as a surprise to so many. The revelation that one of the greatest sportsmen of all time was so consumed with winning that he often bordered on being callous to his teammates and opponents has been one of the big takes from ‘The Last Dance’, the currently-airing 10-part documentary on brilliant 1990s Chicago Bulls team.

Arab News • 12th May 2020

Emirati star Omar Abdulrahman’s long-anticipated European move seems ever more unlikely

Long-time followers of European football, and football transfer rumors, will recognize the old — and long-past funny — joke about the Dutch midfielder linked for years with a move to Old Trafford. It never happened. But the joke lives on in the world of social media. The closest equivalent to Schneider — in terms of transfer rumors — in the Middle East is UAE superstar Omar Abdulrahman, who has consistently been rumored to be on the way to… well, anywhere in Europe really.

Arab News • 7th May 2020

The tackle that changed modern football 40 years ago

DUBAI: Sometime on Sunday afternoon, as you sit at home not watching football, an infamous moment in the history of the beautiful game will celebrate, if that’s the right word, its 40th anniversary. There was, to be clear, nothing beautiful about it. It is more a lament of an act that deprived us of something beautiful.

Gentlemen's Quarterly • 7th May 2020

Why Female Athletes in the Arab World Can No Longer Be Ignored

Columnist Ali Khaled on the women breaking new ground in Saudi sport and beyond It was a rainy November night in Riyadh, and the King Fahd International Stadium was barely half-full for the Gulf Cup semi-final between Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Despite a win for the home nation, the gloomy weather and vast empty stands lent the occasion a downbeat atmosphere for the predominantly Saudi crowd. Actually, make that Saudi male crowd.

Arab News • 22nd April 2020

Football nostalgia remains a legitimate distraction during these difficult times

DUBAI: Arrigo Sacchi once said, “football is the most important of the unimportant things in life.” Chances are you’ve heard the great Italian manager’s famous line repeated a few times recently. It is only right that with every article written during the coronavirus crisis, there must come a disclaimer that states clearly sport’s irrelevance during these locked down times. Particularly, it seems, if the discussion happens to be about football and its fans.