Kuala Lumpur: United Arab Emirates, hoping to win the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 on home soil, have announced their 23-man squad.



In the squad named by head coach Alberto Zaccheroni, 2015 AFC Player of the Year Ahmed Khalil and Ali Makbhout will be leading the charge for goals in a team that will be missing the talismanic Omar Abdulrahman.

Abdulrahman was ruled out earlier after suffering a season ending knee injury in October.



Al Ain, fresh from their runners-up finish in the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2019, have seven players in the squad.

Al Jazira are well represented as well with Zaccheroni selecting five players.

UAE open their Group A campaign against Bahrain on January 5. They play India five days later and Thailand on January 14.

UAE will be looking to better their finish from the last time they hosted the AFC Asian Cup in 1995, when they finished runners-up.

UAE Squad

Khalid Essa, Bandar Al Ahbabi, Mohamed Ahmed, Ismail Ahmed, Amer Abdulrahman, Rayan Yaslam, Mohamed Abdulrahman (Al Ain); Ali Khaseif, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Fares Juma, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout (Al Jazira); Khalifa Mubarak, Mahmoud Khamis (Al Nasr); Walid Abbas, Majed Hassan, Ismail Al Hammadi, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli Dubai Club); Saif Rashid (Sharjah); Mohamed Al Shamsi, Ismail Matar (Al Wahda); Ali Salmeen, Khamis Esmail (Al Wasl).

Photo: AFC


Source: the-afc.com