Kalba rope in Saeed to strengthen squad

Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter

Ittihad Kalba continued their shopping spree in an extended summer transfer window with the fifth signing of the season as they roped in centre-back Mubarak Saeed.

Transfer window deadline was extended this years due to coronavirus to facilitate both the clubs and players.

Saeed is a former UAE international and has a long experience of playing across all the domestic competitions in the UAE with the clubs like Emirates, Al Nasr and Kalba.

He started his career at Emirates in 2015-16, then joined Al Nasr and after completing his agreement with them he signed a new deal with Kalba. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

Kalba made their intents clear to mount a serious challenge by further bolstering their squad. Among the other major signings is Fahd Sabeel.

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He will join the Tigers next season from rival club Fujairah, who are at the bottom of standings in the league with just 12 points from 19 games. Sabeel has a long sprawling career in the Arabian Gulf League (AGL), with almost a decade of experience across all the domestic competitions.

Sabeel has played for almost all big clubs of the UAE since he made his league debut back in 2010 with Al Nasr. After completing one season with Al Nasr, he joined Bani Yas on loan following year before coming back to his previous club again in the next season. He was signed by Al Shaab in 2015-16 before joining Fujairah in 2018 and since he has been with them.

Kalba are banking on his domestic experience as they are trying to assert their position as one of the permanent teams in the top flight. Few days later, Kalba also roped in Mohammad Sabeel.

Earlier, Kalba also completed the signing of home-grown talent Ahmed Lotfy of Egypt, who has been kept in the category of state-born children. He was the second signing of the club in this transfer window apart from handing out one-year extension to their coach Jorge da Silva. Kalba also brought in the Italian defender Gabriel Santini to boost their defence.

Kalba seem to be planning to return to action in full throttle when the action resumes in the league next season. The season was stopped due to due to pandemic in the mid of March with seven rounds still remaining.

Earlier, in order to provide more stability to the team, Kalba renewed the contract of their da Silva for another season. He has been entrusted with the responsibility of preparing the team for the next season.

Currently Kalb were in the danger zone. They were on the 11 the spot in 14-team league with 16 points from 19 games. They lost 13, drew one and won five out of their 19 games last season which could not be completed as was aborted to safeguard the health of the players and other officials.

Da Silva was roped in by Kalba last year in a bid to revive their faltering campaign. He had replaced Firas Jabbas, who was struggling to keep the team’s campaign on the track and there were growing fears that they could be relegated to second tier.

When Da Silva took over the situation was very gloomy and club was facing a streak of losses one after the other. The morale of the team was at nadir. They were at the bottom of the standings both in the AGL and the Arabian Gulf Cup.

However, after Da Silva took over, there was some turn around in the fortune of the club they rose to the 11th spot from the bottom.

The biggest challenge for the new Argentine coach was to end the skid and instill the self-belief in the players. They desperately needed a morale-boosting win to revive their campaign across all the competitions.