Fans of the 2015 NAS Tournament have been given a bonus Suhour surprise when it was announced that the last day of the Ramadan event will host an exhibition futsal match featuring international stars past and present including Zinedine Zidane and Omar Abdulrahman.
The last-minute addition to the third edition of NAS Tournament will be played on Friday night between a Friends of Zidane team that includes the French World Cup-winning captain, his sons Enzo and Luca, and his former Juventus and Real Madrid teammates Edgar Davids and Michel Salgado, respectively, and a Friends of NAS side led by the UAE legend and member of the 1990 World Cup squad Zuhair Bakheet and supplemented with current national team members Abdulrahman, Ali Mabkhout, Habib Fardan and Khamis Ismail.
“In the past we have held matches with some of the best futsal players in the world, and their performances were memorable,” said Ahmad Jaber, the head of the NAS Tournament organising committee.
“This time we wanted to put on an unprecedented exhibition, and the result was this match which should provide the fans with great opportunity to watch some of the world’s best ex-players and current UAE stars.”
The match, which consists of two 10-minute periods, will kick off at 11.15pm and takes place between the futsal competition’s third-place play-off and the final.
“Watching these players in action should cement the growing popularity of futsal among the fans, as well as promoting skill and fair play, which is one of the main aims of this competition, “ Jaber said.
Over the past three the NAS Arena has seen capacity crowds attend the nightly futsal matches.
Abdullah Saeed Al Naboodah, chairman of Al Ahli and one of the main backers of the tournament, last week highlighted that the spirit of Ramadan had contributed to the competition’s success with many of the participants attracting large groups of friends and families to watch the action.
The tournament has also been given Royal support with Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, on Wednesday night greeting the finalists of the Wheelchair Basketball competition, which saw Hamdan bin Mohammed Culture Centre beat Dubai Municipality 97-49.
Abdulrahman, the Al Ain playmaker and pin-up boy of the UAE national team, has been a conspicuous presence throughout the competition, too, supporting the local teams, mixing with fans and players and even showing of some of his skills to his admirers.
In the NAS Tournament Futsal competition, Wednesday night saw Fuhood Jumairah beat Surprise 8-4 to advance tonight’s final where they will face Al Jokar, 9-2 winners over XCAT.
Nearly 700 people filled the arena as the 25-day event neared its climax with the two semi-finals, with the action dragging on into the early hours of Thursday morning.
The organisers of the tournament said that a further 200 visitors regularly followed the action on big-screens televisions in the Food and Beverage village.
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