Al-Muqbali is a hero… and I hope to see naturalized players in the national team with high standards

The former national team goalkeeper and current Al Hamriyah team goalkeeper, Majed Nasser, confirmed that the first national football team has put its foot on the right path towards a promising football future, after contracting with the Romanian coach, Olario Cosmin, and the positive results and rising technical performance he achieved during his participation in the Arab Cup currently being held in Qatar, which witnessed the “Whites” qualifying for the semi-finals, before losing to Morocco, despite the recent period of Cosmin’s tenure as coach of the team.

Nasser expressed his happiness with the team’s performance in the Arab Cup held in the State of Qatar, considering that these results reflect the validity of the approach that the Football Association is working on in building the national team. He expressed his hope that “Al-Abyad” will succeed, with its new identity, in achieving the best results in the coming years, and competing strongly in the upcoming Gulf Cup and Asian Cup tournaments.

Majed Nasser told Emirates Today: “There is no doubt that naturalization will bring many positive benefits to the national team, especially when it is with distinguished players at young ages, ensuring that they continue for long periods with the various national teams, all the way to the first team, which contributes to increasing the number of international matches that the players play, and gives them greater experience.”

He stressed that naturalization will not negatively affect the citizen player, but rather can constitute an incentive for his development, noting that this trend has become common in many countries of the world, explaining that not qualifying for the World Cup is not a problem as much as it represents a new starting point for building a team capable of excellence in the future.

He added: “I hope that we will see naturalized players with high specifications similar to what stars such as Ahmed Khalil and Ali Mabkhout presented in the offensive line, and Majed Hassan in the midfield.”

Kuzmin

Majed Nasser spoke about the national team coach, the Romanian Eulario Cosmin, describing him as a brave coach, after accepting the task of coaching the team shortly before the World Cup qualifiers, and then competing in the Arab Cup competitions in a limited time, considering that the decision to contract with him was successful due to his high technical abilities, which enabled him to draw new features for the team, and add clear mental and artistic touches to the players’ performance. He pointed out that the national team needs to naturalize talented players in their prime, and build on them for the future, expressing his admiration for a number of players who continue to appear in a distinguished manner, including Ali Saleh, Yahya Al-Ghassani, and Sultan Adel, stressing that the development of the national team requires greater cooperation from the clubs.

He stressed that the current team, despite not qualifying for the World Cup and not reaching the Arab Cup final, needs quality preparation camps and strong friendly matches to raise the competitive level of the players.

A special goalkeeper project

Nasser described the national team and Shabab Al-Ahly goalkeeper, Hamad Al-Muqbali, as the “goalkeeper champion” at the present time, considering him a distinguished project goalkeeper for the national team during the next ten years, despite his young age (22 years), due to his courage, discipline and consistency in level.

Nasser said: “Al-Muqbali has great experience, as if he played more than 200 international matches, and is not new to the national team. He proved this through his decisive saves, especially in the last moments against Algeria, which preserved the team’s chances in the tournament, in addition to his brilliance in the penalty shootout.”

He added that his happiness is doubled because Hamad Al-Muqbali is one of the gains provided by the Emirate of Fujairah to clubs and national teams.

Artistic vision

Majid Nasser called on the national team’s technical staff to monitor the level of Kalba’s current goalkeeper, Sultan Al-Mundhiri, who previously played for Al-Ain and Al-Wasl, stressing that he possesses high technical specifications that qualify him to be among the ranks of the national team, alongside Hamad Al-Muqbali and the rest of the goalkeepers, calling for the players to be evaluated according to their technical levels and not the ranking of their teams in the league.

He also praised the Emirate of Fujairah, describing it as a source of goalkeeping talent in the country, due to its great role in discovery and establishment, noting that the public clubs benefited from the goalkeepers coming from the Fujairah Club, and that the national team is the biggest beneficiary of that.

Nasser concluded his speech by emphasizing the importance of the public’s support for the national team, and not putting pressure on the players and the technical staff, stressing that patience and support will lead “Al-Abyad” to reach the furthest possible point.