DUBAI // New signing Leonardo says he has more to offer Al Jazira after his debut on Friday helped lift the club to the top of the Arabian Gulf League.
The Brazilian, who joined this month shortly after winning the 2016 Asian Champions League with South Korea’s Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, set up one goal and scored the winner in Jazira’s 3-2 victory at Al Wasl. Both goals were testament to Leonardo’s set-piece expertise, with the first an assist for Saif Khalfan and the second a curling free-kick that sealed the points.
The result against the division’s third-placed team moved Jazira to the summit, one point above Al Ain after 14 rounds.
Those two sides meet in a potentially defining clash on January 23, in the rescheduled fixture from Round 8.
Given his instant impact, Leonardo promises to be integral to Jazira’s chances of lifting a second UAE championship — their only success was the 2010/11 season — with the forward encouraged by the fact he has settled incredibly quickly in the capital.
Leonardo had trained for only one week before the Wasl match, while he spent the weeks before his transfer on holiday with his family. However, he credited his swift assimilation to his new colleagues.
Asked if his debut was better than he could have expected, Leonardo said: “Of course, after one week you have one assist, one goal and the team win? This is one very good day for me.
“I feel very good. Thank you to God, first, because he gave me power, and my family, my agents, the fans, the coaching staff and the players. Because I’m now one week in Al Jazira but everyone has made me feel like I’ve been here one or two years.
“[Compatriots] Ailton, Joao Carlos, and all the Emirati players, have helped me so much. It’s like one family. Thanks to everybody. I’ll try to continue like this to help Al Jazira more to be at the top.”
Leonardo is seeking to replicate the form shown in his final few months at Jeonbuk, when he played a crucial role in the South Korean’s march to the Champions League title.
With 10 goals, including two in the first leg of the final against Al Ain, Leonardo finished as the tournament’s second-top scorer.
“Before I was playing at the Fifa Club World Cup, then I went with my family to the USA for a holiday and I didn’t train for three weeks,” he said.
“I came back and have trained just one week here with the players and with the team.
“Every day I try to be better, to get my condition back, to take my condition back to be the same player I was when I was with Jeonbuk: the confidence, the power, to help the club more.”
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
McLaren GT specs
Engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: seven-speed
Power: 620bhp
Torque: 630Nm
Price: Dh875,000
On sale: now
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Scoreline
Al Wasl 1 (Caio Canedo 90 1')
Al Ain 2 (Ismail Ahmed 3', Marcus Berg 50')
Red cards: Ismail Ahmed (Al Ain) 77'
Bio:
Favourite Quote: Prophet Mohammad's quotes There is reward for kindness to every living thing and A good man treats women with honour
Favourite Hobby: Serving poor people
Favourite Book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite food: Fish and vegetables
Favourite place to visit: London
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Key facilities
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Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The Two Popes
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce
Four out of five stars
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Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final, second leg (first-leg score):
Manchester City (0) v Tottenham Hotspur (1), Wednesday, 11pm UAE
Match is on BeIN Sports
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
Women%E2%80%99s%20T20%20World%20Cup%20Qualifier
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Karwaan
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Director: Akarsh Khurana
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar
Rating: 4/5
THE SPECS
Engine: Four-cylinder 2.5-litre
Transmission: Seven-speed auto
Power: 165hp
Torque: 241Nm
Price: Dh99,900 to Dh134,000
On sale: now
