FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN’S senior men’s football national team have kicked off their annual summer training camp in Europe.
The kingdom’s squad are conducting their overseas programme in Maribor, Slovenia, under the supervision of head coach Dragan Talajic and his staff.
The Croatian tactician has selected 28 players for this gathering, which is scheduled to continue until July 24.
During this period, the Bahrainis are scheduled to play a pair of friendly games against clubs from the area. They will first take on Croatian First League outfit NK Istra 1961 on Wednesday and then play Slovenian First League team NK Primorje on July 22.
The Bahrainis are set to fly back to the kingdom on July 25.
The players at the camp include Waleed Al Hayyam, Amine Benaddi, Hamad Shamsan, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Komail Alaswad, Ali Madan, Mahdi Humaidan, Mahdi Abduljabbar, Ebrahim Luthfallah, Sayed Mahdi Baqer, Ahmed Bughammar, Sayed Mahmood Al Mosawi, Hazza Ali, Vincent Emmanuel, Hussain Al Eker, Jassim Al Shaikh, Ahmed Al Sherooqi, Ebrahim Al Khattal, Hussain Abdulkarim, Abdulkarim Al Fardan, Abdulla Al Subaie, Hussain Jameel, Omar Saber, Ahmed Dhiya, Ahmed Abdulhameed, Yousef Habib, and Mohammed Al Gharabli.
Bahrain are gearing up for a number of competitions that will be taking place later this year, including the Fifa Arab Cup 2025 this December in Doha, Qatar.
The nationals must first play a qualifying game in November against Djibouti to secure their spot in the Fifa Arab Cup’s group stage. The date and venue of the single-game contest has yet to be announced.
Should the Bahrainis win, they will be in Group D for the tournament proper, where they will join Algeria, Iraq, and either Lebanon or Sudan.
Group A features competition hosts Qatar, Tunisia, Syria or South Sudan, and Palestine or Libya; Group B is composed of Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Oman or Somalia, and Yemen or Comoros; and Group C includes Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, and either Kuwait or Mauritania.
Bahrain’s senior men’s football national team have had a mixed 2025 so far. They started the year winning the 26th Gulf Cup – their second-ever title in the history of the regional competition – but then followed it up with a heart-breaking exit from the Asian qualifiers for the Fifa World Cup 2026.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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