Hi and welcome to the second installment of The Kids on the Block where I will be giving you information Ahmed Khalil in another ambitious venture into Asian football…
- Ahmed Khalil beats South Africa’s Philani Khwela a FIFA U20 World Cup Group F match.
Ahmed Khalil is a name that will be unfamiliar to many people, even to keen football fans, but despite his obscurity he is debatably one of the best young players around. Khalil is a fast and agile centre forward who has an excellent technique displayed by his ability to score goals. He is a flamboyant player that isn’t very good at decision making, preferring to choose the extravagant option over a simple pass, but that may be a cause of youth or inexperience and hey may mature over time.
He plies his trade for Al-Ahli, a club based in Dubai that play in the Etisalat Pro-League that is captained by 2006 World Cup winner, Fabio Cannavaro. Admittedly, football in the UAE isn’t exactly world-class, but when you’re 19 and you’ve scored 33 goals in 76 matches and you’ve already got 19 caps or your country, you must be pretty good (at least). It is only a matter of time before he secures a move to Europe as his publicity is increasing more and more due to winning Asian Young Footballer of the Year 2008 and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Creative Sports Award.
- Ahmed Khalil scores the UAE’s 5th goal against Malaysia in an Asian Cup 2011 qualifier.
In June 2009 the possibility occurred of a move to join Portsmouth in the Premier League when their Emirati owner, Sulaiman Al-Fahim announced that he would like to sign Ahmed Khalil along with Hamdan Al-Kamali before he became owner; but unfortunately the move never materialised. His brother, Faisal Khalil almost got the chance to play for LB Châteauroux in France’s Ligue 2 until it was announced that he didn’t inform his club, Al Ahli about the transfer. Surprisingly, Faisal was his strike partner for Al-Ahli and the UAE until he was jailed for hiring “sorcerers” to prepare black magic spells that would guarantee him a spot in Al-Ahli’s first XI.
Ahmed did recently have a trial at Chelsea, but he failed to secure a transfer to the London club. But that failure does not signal the end of his European dream as he is only 19, many top clubs are in pursuit of him and his scoring record in youth international football is incredible, the failure of any of his countrymen to make the grade in Europe will not deter him in his aim for stardom but he will have to continue to impress in his homeland if he is ever going to play in Europe…
