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Ali Saleh has been considered one of the most promising talents in the UAE.
Born and raised in Dubai. However, his mother as well as his grandparents are from Scotland. “My mum is a Hearts fan and my grandfather is a Hibernian fan. But you know I’m more of a Celtic guy,” Saleh told National News in 2019.
The 21-year-old is an Emirati professional Footballer who plays for UAE Side Al Wasl and started his career with the Tigers in the youth at the age of six. He was there for 10 years before making his senior debut at the age of 16, becoming the youngest player to feature in the UAE top flight.
The teenager has featured 18 times for Al Wasl this season, scoring four goals and assisting six as Laurentiu Reghecampf’s side sit eighth and are unbeaten in their last 13 games. They might have a mountain to climb, but remain six points of the top four with four games left to be played this season.
Saleh scored in the victory versus Ajman which sealed the win and was on the scoresheet against Fujairah earlier in the season.
At the age of 19, he was named the 2018/19 Arabian Gulf League’s Golden Boy, the award for the best young player in that division ahead of the talented Omar Abdulrahman.
He is considered one of the hottest prospects in the Middle East, a player with a lot of quality, skilful and a threat to many opponents in the league.
A huge talent and given a few years he has all the tools to be in contention for the top Footballers in the world. The future remains bright for the youngster who will look to follow the footsteps of other Arab stars of Liverpool’s Mo Salah and Algerian Riyad Mahrez.
A lifelong Manchester United fan, Saleh’s dream is to play on the same pitch where he once admired Cristiano Ronaldo.
“Obviously the English Premier League is the dream of most football players; I’d love to play there one day. But I’d love to play in Scotland, too – it’s a big league with some huge teams and very passionate fans. For players in the Gulf I think playing in Europe is always the goal,” Salah told BBC sport in 2020
He made his ranks from the UAE under 19 squad making three appearances before making his senior debut in the international team featuring seven times and scoring three. Saleh made his competitive debut in front of 43,000 fans in Kuala Lumpur, as his side were 2-1 winners over Malaysia.
“I love Scotland but I always knew I wanted to play international football for the UAE,” he says. “It’s where I grew up, it’s the place I call home. I actually scored on my debut, a friendly against Sri Lanka, but the game against Malaysia was much bigger as it was a World Cup qualifier,” said Salah.
The forward has also been included in the UAE squad for the friendly against India on Monday.
The last time UAE have appeared in a big competition was in 1990 and with the World Cup coming up in the next year, the youngster has big aspirations of competing for his country. “Going to the World Cup would not be just an honour for me, it’s for all the teammates, the entire UAE.
It would make the whole nation happy. Every football player has dreamed of scoring on that stage, but especially for me, it’s something that’s always been there”, he told the National News in 2019.
The Al Wasl forward signed a contract in 2019 with Nike and says, “working with Nike was something I have dreamt of since a kid,” who joins other stars of Virgil Van Dijk, Kyllian Mbappe and Jadon Sancho.
