Omar El Najmi, the Al Yasmina striker, cannot wait for the new schools football league to kick off after a highly successful pre-season for his team.
When the secondary schools league begins in earnest on October 30, the 13 year old and his teammates are hoping to hit the ground running.
"The pre-season tournament at Al Jazira last week was brilliant and that has got us really prepared for when the league starts," El Najmi said. "It helped, of course, that we won the Under 14 competition for boys.
"It's fantastic that there is a proper league now for us to play in. It will help us get better as players, plus it's a lot more fun when you have serious games every week and there is a league table to keep track of."
There have been school football leagues in Abu Dhabi for many years, but they were often loosely organised; sometimes teams would not turn up for games, or teams of differing age groups would be matched together.
Al Jazira Football Club has played a big role in helping improve the situation. Mike Edgar, the director of sport at the British School Al Khubairat (BSAK), teamed up with Jazira four years ago to start a league for primary schools. It has now moved into secondary schools for the second year running.
Jazira provide the schools with facilities for no charge, and also give the schools free tickets for their home games. The Under 16 teams from BSAK and Al Yasmina will play on the pitch before the Abu Dhabi club's first Pro League match of the season on Saturday.
"It was just a question of getting like-minded schools together who want to play fair, play hard and have games between students of the same age," Edgar said. "I'm afraid there were times in the past when 14 year olds were playing 18 year olds, and that's no good at all.
"So this is the second year of the Al Jazira secondary schools league. It's fairly small beginnings but we are growing by the year."
Edgar is looking for as many schools as possible to get involved.
"There are a lot of good players in the area. What I hope is that in five years time there is going to be a very healthy schools league in Abu Dhabi," he said.
El Najmi knows which team he wants to beat. "We managed to finish ahead of BSAK in the pre-season tournament, after losing to them a few times, so it would be great to beat them for the league title," he said.
"They are our big rivals so it would be brilliant to beat them again."
ncameron@thenational.ae
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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MATCH INFO
Schalke 0
Werder Bremen 1 (Bittencourt 32')
Man of the match Leonardo Bittencourt (Werder Bremen)
Other IPL batting records
Most sixes: 292 – Chris Gayle
Most fours: 491 – Gautam Gambhir
Highest individual score: 175 not out – Chris Gayle (for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in 2013)
Highest strike-rate: 177.29 – Andre Russell
Highest strike-rate in an innings: 422.22 – Chris Morris (for Delhi Daredevils against Rising Pune Supergiant in 2017)
Highest average: 52.16 – Vijay Shankar
Most centuries: 6 – Chris Gayle
Most fifties: 36 – Gautam Gambhir
Fastest hundred (balls faced): 30 – Chris Gayle (for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in 2013)
Fastest fifty (balls faced): 14 – Lokesh Rahul (for Kings XI Punjab against Delhi Daredevils in 2018)
Brief scoreline:
Tottenham 1
Son 78'
Manchester City 0