Sparky’s Column

the air football fans breathe

A ‘nugget' is described in the dictionary as "a small lump of a substance, eg gold". It can also apply to small, interesting pieces of information. The "nuggets" of trivia information in football are the air football fans breathe. They can be used to impress family, friends and fellow football fans.

UAE football "nuggets" are as rare as gold, but if you dig deep enough they can be found. We have compiled a bunch - they are free of copyright and available for you to use at anytime.

•Sharjah Football Club are known as "The King" because they won so many trophies in the late 80's and 90's.

•Al Wahda have the only current UAE player who has played abroad - Ismail Matter who was on loan at Al Saad in 2009.

•Al Ain have two stadiums to choose from - Khalifa Stadium and Al Qattara Stadium as you enter the city.

•Al Ahli are not the only club to have had a ‘world player of the year' on their books. Al Jazira signed George Weah in the early part of the decade.

•Al Dhafra train as a squad in Abu Dhabi and travel away to their home games at Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Stadium in Madinat Zayed.

•Al Ain have won the most titles with 9 in all.

•Bouri Lah from Senegal has the highest goal total from any individual in the League in one season with 29.

•Dubai Club are the only team from the Emirate yet to win the League.

•Nobody won the league in 1991 due to the Gulf War.

•Al Ain won back to back titles between 2001 and 2004 and nobody has achieved this since.

•Al Jazira have finished runners up four times, having never won the title. Only Al Wasl have finished second on more occasions - achieving 5 runners-up titles.

•Al Nasr opened their stadium in the late 70‘s with a friendly against European Champions Liverpool.

•No match has ever been called off due to a frozen pitch in the UAE.


•Barak Obama has been given the number 44 shirt at Al Wasl and no other player can wear it. This was in honour of him being the 44th President of the USA.

•The all time top scorer in the League is Fahad Khamees with 165 goals.

•Al Shabab means "Youth", so it is the youth's Club.
•Al Ahli are the only football club in the world with their own riding stables at the back of the stadium.

So there you have it - a quick plethora of information on the Etisalat Pro-League. If you've got some other interesting nuggets of information on the League, feel free to share them with me at mark@theonionbag.net