FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN head coach Dragan Talajic has called up under-17 player Hussain Zuhair and Al Ahli Club’s Sayed Mahdi Sharaf to join the senior men’s football national team in their latest training gathering kicking off tomorrow.
This period will include two international friendly matches next week against Qatar and the UAE.
The Bahrain Football Association (BFA) announced yesterday that Talajic has added Zuhair to a now 31-player roster, in light of his impressive performances during the youth national team’s ongoing overseas training camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Sharaf’s addition is part of Talajic’s strategy to integrate young players in the senior men’s squad, with the aim of strengthening its programme by injecting new talent.
Zuhair and Sharaf join a formidable Bahrain roster that already includes Mohammed Jassim Marhoon, Mohammed Al Rumaihi, Amine Benaddi, Waleed Al Hayyam, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Ahmed Dhiya, Sayed Mahmoud Al Mosawi, Ahmed Bughammar, Hamad Shamsan, Sayed Mahdi Baqer, Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Hussain Al Eker, Vincent Emmanuel, Hazza Ali, Hussain Jameel, Mahdi Humaidan, Ali Madan, Ahmed Al Sherooqi, Omar Saber, Jassim Al Shaikh, Komail Al Aswad, Abdulla Al Subaie, Hussain Abdulkarim, Mahdi Abduljabbar, Ebrahim Al Khattal, and goalkeepers Ebrahim Luthfallah, Mohammed Al Gharably, Abdulkarim Al Fardan, and Yousef Habib.
Tomorrow’s first day of their new gathering is set to be held behind closed doors at the BFA pitches in Riffa. They will continue their local practices on Sunday before flying to Doha on Monday. There, they will take on Qatar’s senior men’s national team in an international friendly on Wednesday next week.
The Bahrainis then travel to Dubai on Thursday ahead of their friendly clash with the Emirates’ senior men’s side on September 8. They then fly back to the kingdom the next day.
The Bahrainis are gearing up for their upcoming competitions, headlined by the Fifa Arab Cup 2025 this December, also to be held in the Qatari capital.
The two friendlies will be the nationals’ first international games since their disappointing exit from the third round of Asian qualifiers for the Fifa World Cup 2026 last June. They had also played a number of exhibitions against European clubs during their overseas training camp in Maribor, Slovenia, in July.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))