AFC – In demand Iran international midfielder
Javad Nekounam will play for with UAE champions Al Wahda from January 2006
until the end of the season, Rashed Al Zaabi, the Abu Dhabi’s club’s General
Secretary has announced.
Al Zaabi confirmed the signing to the Gulf News but did not elaborate on the
details of the deal or on which of the side’s other foreign players will
make way to accommodate Nekounam.
“We have signed him up till the end of the season and we have not decided
who he will replace," said Al Zaabi, who is also head of Al Wahda’s football
team.
In the UAE league teams can only field two foreign players while in the AFC
Champions League three members of the squad can be non-nationals.
Al Wahda currently have in their ranks E-League leading scorer Darko
Metrovic from Bosnia, Angola international Maurito and Fabio Junior, the
28-year-old former Brazil international who has had spells in Italy with
Roma, in Portugal with Vitoria Guimaraes and in Japan with Kashima Antlers.
Nekounam was Pas’ most influential player in their 2005 AFC Champions League
campaign, scoring four times in seven matches as Tehran’s side bowed out of
the competition at the quarter-final stage to eventual runners-up Al Ain of
the UAE.
The 25-year-old’s impressive performances and crucial goals during Pas’ ACL
campaign and his influential role in Iran’s qualification to the 2006 World
Cup finals caught the eye of clubs outside the continent.
Until Al Wahda’s signing coup, Nekounam had been linked with Kaiserslautern
in Germany, who former Al Ain star Boubacar Sanogo joined after four seasons
with the inaugural AFC Champions League winners, and English Premier League
outfit Tottenham Hotspur.
