FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN’S senior men’s football national team are scheduled to depart this evening for Tbilisi, Georgia, to begin an overseas training camp, during which they will play two international friendly matches against formidable opponents.
The kingdom’s squad are gearing up for two major tournaments – the 27th Gulf Cup in September and October of this year, which they are entering as defending champions, and the AFC Asian Cup 2027, slated for January and February next year.
They wrapped up their local gathering last night with a practice held under the supervision of head coach Dragan Talajic at the Bahrain Football Association (BFA) pitches in Riffa.
BFA president Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa attended the session, along with BFA vice-president Shaikh Khalifa bin Ali bin Isa Al Khalifa and BFA board members Shaikh Salman bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa and Shaikh Ahmed bin Isa Al Khalifa.
Talajic and his staff had the national team’s players do ball drills while they also worked on tactics.
The Croatian tactician called up 30 players for their ongoing gathering and Europe camp – a majority of whom have already reported for international duty. The latest to join the team were Sayed Dhiya Saeed and Saleh Al Zubaidi, who were in training last night.
Saeed is one of Bahrain’s professional players who ply their trade overseas. The others are scheduled to join their teammates directly at Tbilisi.
There, the nationals – ranked 91st in the world – will play their first tune-up game against the 72nd-ranked host Georgians on Friday at Mikheil Maski Stadium in Tbilisi. They will then travel to Antalya, Türkiye, where they will take to the pitch for a friendly against their counterparts from Syria – ranked 84th in international football – on June 9 at Gloria Sports Arena.
The rest of Talajic’s roster for their European foray features Mohammed Jassim Marhoon, Komail Al Aswad, Ali Madan, Mahdi Humaidan, Mahdi Abduljabbar, Amine Benaddi, Waleed Al Hayyam, Abdulla Alkhalasi, Sayed Mahmoud Almosawi, Hassan Alkarani, Hashem Sayed Issa, Ebrahim Alkhattal, Ahmed Bughammar, Mohammed Abdulqayoom, Ali Al Doseri, Hussain Abdulkarim, Ahmed Rabeea, Ahmed Dhiya, Hamad Al Shamsan, Vincent Emmanuel, Abbas Al Asfoor, Mohammed Al Rumaihi, Sayed Mahdi Sharaf, Omar Saber, and goalkeepers Omar Salem, Mohammed Elgharably, Abdulla Efrih Alahmed, and Godwill Chia Ndang.
The Bahrainis were originally scheduled to depart for the Georgian capital tomorrow, but have rescheduled their travel for tonight.
In this year’s Gulf Cup, also known as ‘Khaleeji 27’, Bahrain are in Group B of the preliminary round along with Qatar, the UAE, and Yemen, while Group A is composed of Iraq, Oman, Kuwait, and hosts Saudi.
In the AFC Asian Cup 2027, the nationals are in Group B for the tournament’s preliminaries with Uzbekistan, North Korea, and Jordan.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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