Shabab Al Ahli Club () is an Emirati professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

, that currently plays in the

UAE Pro League The UAE Pro League (), also known as the ADNOC Pro League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the highest level of the Emirati football league system. The first team to w ...

. It is one of the most successful clubs in the UAE. Al Ahli FC has won 9 league titles, 11 UAE President Cup titles, 5 ADIB cup titles, 7 UAE super Cup titles, 1 combined league. 1 Emirati-MoroccanSuper Cup,1 Qatar–UAE Super Shield, 1 Qatar–UAE Challenge Shield. Earining a total of 36 titles making them the second most successful team in UAE. And the most successful team in Dubai. In the latest ranking by the

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

, Shabab Al Ahli is the 7th best club in Asia and ranked 110th in the world. In 2017, the

Dubai CSC Dubai Cultural Sports Club () was a football (soccer), football club based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. In 2017 merged with Al Shabab (Dubai), Al Shabab to join Al-Ahli to rebrand the club into Shabab Al-Ahli Dubai FC. History The clu ...

and Al Shabab merged within Al Ahli which the club renamed itself to Shabab Al Ahli.

History

Establishment

Al Ahli Club was established in 1970 when two local football teams Al Wehdah and Al Shabab (est. 1958) joined for a training camp in Egypt but decided to merge as one single club under first club president H.E. Nasser Abdulla Hussain Lootah. Four years later another local team Al Najah joined to form Al Ahli Club. Al Ahli translates to "domestic or national" in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. The club won three

UAE Arabian Gulf League The UAE Pro League (), also known as the ADNOC Pro League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the highest level of the Emirati football league system. The first team to w ...

titles in the 1970s and won its fourth in 2006, fifth in 2009, sixth in 2014, seventh in 2016, eighth in 2023, and ninth in 2025

1973–1980: The golden age and aftermath decline

It took Al Ahli only four years after its establishment to win the

twice consecutively in 1974-75 and 1975-76 then again in 1979-80 for the third time, which allowed them to permanently keep the league trophy. The victorious team, led by coach Mohamed Shehta and featuring players such as

Hassan Nazari Hassan Nazari (, born August 19, 1956, in Abadan, Iran) is a retired Iranian footballer. He usually played as a defender. Playing career Nazari began his career in his hometown of Abadan, playing for clubs like Sepah Abadan and Sanat Naft. His ...

and

Hassan Roshan Hassan Rowshan (, born 2 June 1955) is an Iranian football coach, manager, and former player. He usually played as a striker. He is currently the head of technical committee of Esteghlal. Early life Rowshan was 13 when he joined Taj youth ...

. The team also won three President Cup titles during that period. Drawing hometown fans, Al Ahli has been and continues to be one of the most popular sports teams in the UAE. However, the club went into decline for few decades, the result of which saw the club relegated to the second division (1995–96) in a dramatic way, when Al Ahli played against neighbour rival Al Shabab, Al Ahli needed just one point from the match to stay in the first division. Al Ahli has lost the match and Al Shabab has won the league title. The same year, Al Ahli won the President Cup title. After a period of decline, Al Ahli went back on top under the new leadership of

Sheikh Sheikh ( , , , , ''shuyūkh'' ) is an honorific title in the Arabic language, literally meaning "elder (administrative title), elder". It commonly designates a tribal chief or a Muslim ulama, scholar. Though this title generally refers to me ...

Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (; born 14 November 1982) is an Emirati royal and politician who has been the Crown Prince of Dubai since 2008. He is the Minister of Defence of the UAE since 14 July 2024. He served as deputy ru ...

, the Deputy Ruler of Dubai, winning its fourth league title in 2006 and the following years, Al Ahli continued to be a successful club in the UAE by winning 6 President Cups. The early 2000s saw Iranian legend

Ali Karimi Mohammad Ali Karimi ( ; born 8 November 1978) is an Iranian football coach and former professional footballer. During his professional football career, he has played as a playmaker in the Iran Pro League, UAE Pro League, Qatar Stars League and B ...

play multiple seasons for Al Ahli, finishing as league top scorer in 2003-04 and being named Asian footballer of the year 2004.

2009 FIFA Club World Cup

Al-Ahli, as 2008–09

UAE Pro-League The UAE Pro League (), also known as the ADNOC Pro League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the highest level of the Emirati football league system. The first team to w ...

champions and as Abu Dhabi was hosting the event, qualified for the

2009 FIFA Club World Cup The 2009 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2009 presented by Toyota for sponsorship reasons) was a football tournament played from 9 to 19 December 2009. It was the sixth FIFA Club World Cup and was played in Ab ...

which was held in December 2009. They lost 0–2 to

Auckland City Auckland City () was a territorial authority area with city status covering the central isthmus of the urban area of Auckland, New Zealand. It was governed by the Auckland City Council from 1989 to 2010, and as a territory within the wider Au ...

in their only game in the competition.

Bouncing Back

The club began to rise again and in 2010 with Abdullah Al Naboodah, the squad was gradually re-built, with the likes of

Fabio Cannavaro Fabio Cannavaro (; born 13 September 1973) is an Italian professional association football, football coach and former player who last was the head coach of Croatian club GNK Dinamo Zagreb, Dinamo Zagreb. He is regarded as one of the greatest De ...

and

Grafite Edinaldo Batista Libânio (born 2 April 1979), commonly known as Grafite (pronounced ), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a striker. He currently works as a pundit for TV Globo and SporTV. In 2005, Grafite won the C ...

and

Ricardo Quaresma Ricardo Andrade Quaresma Bernardo (; born 26 September 1983) is a Portuguese former professional association football, footballer who played as a Winger (association football), winger. He began his career at Sporting CP and went on to play for ...

joined the Emirati homegrown talents

Ahmed Khalil Ahmed Khalil Sebait Mubarak Al-Junaibi (; born 8 June 1991) is an UAE, Emirati Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for Al Bataeh Club, Al Bataeh and United Arab Emirates national football tea ...

and Ismael Al Hammadi. In 2012, Al Ahli won the UAE President's Cup and the Arabian Gulf Cup. The arrival of the Romanian football manager Cosmin Olaroiu in 2013, set the stage for a highly successful 2013–14 season. Al Ahli performed strongly in the league and assured its 6th title with a record for the highest ever points total for a league season (62). In addition, the club won the Arabian Gulf Cup, 2 Arabian Gulf Super Cups (2013–14, 2014–15) and in the following year they reached 2015 AFC Champions League Final which they narrowly lost to the Chinese team

Guangzhou Evergrande Guangzhou Football Club (), previously Guangzhou Evergrande (), was a Chinese professional football club based in Guangzhou, Guangdong. Historically, Guangzhou FC played its home matches at various grounds in their home city, most notably at T ...

1–0 on aggregate. Al Ahli homegrown forward

named the UAE's sole recipient of the prestigious Asian Footballer of the Year award in 2015. In 2016, they again won their 7th domestic league title with two matches to play.

2017 Merge

In 2017 the clubs

and Al Shabab joined with Al-Ahli FC to form Shabab Al Ahli. The merge was seen as a controversial move as it meant combining the success of rival club Al Shabab with Al Ahli and it also meant missing the AFC Champions League for the first three years of its existence since it requires a club to exist for three years to obtain an AFC licence. However, the team would quickly experience success as they would win the League Cup and President's Cup in 2019.

Crest and nickname

File:Shabab Al Ahli logo.svg, 2017–Present The original Al Ahli logo reflected a falcon on top of football and the words "Al Ahli Club" written horizontally. After rebranding themselves to Red Knights in 2006, the logo changed to a horse head shape with the letters "AC" (Al Ahli Club) on top. The new logo represents strength and high spirits also it goes along with the new nickname Red Knights instead of the old nickname the Red Devils.

Grounds

Rashid Stadium Rashid Stadium () is a multi-purpose stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is currently used mostly for football and rugby matches. The stadium holds 8,015 people. For AFC Asian Cup 2019 stadium was expanded with temporal stands to 12,056 se ...

is a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used for multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a design philosophy that stres ...

, United Arab Emirates that was named after Sheikh

Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum (; 11 June 1912 – 7 October 1990) was an Emirati royal, politician and a founder of the United Arab Emirates. Al Maktoum was the first vice president and second prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, a ...

. It is currently used mostly for

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

matches. The stadium holds 12,000 people. It was built in 1948. It is the home ground of Shabab Al-Ahli. Shabab Al Ahli also has

Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium () is a multi-use stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was named after Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum. It is currently used mostly for football matches and serves as the home stadium of former ho ...

and Al Aweer Stadium as a second and third home ground for the club after merging with Al Shabab and Dubai in 2017.

Rivalries

Shabab Al Ahli rivalry with

Al Ain Al Ain () is a city in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and the seat of the administrative division of the Al Ain Region. The city is Oman–United Arab Emirates border, bordered to the east by the Omani town of Al-Buraimi. Al A ...

is gaining popularity as the two clubs alternated as champions in the 70s and more after 2010, and currently, both teams are considered among the top teams in the UAE. The match usually creates a lively atmosphere. Al Nasr and Al Wasl are also neighbouring rivals competing for who is the best team in Dubai.

Old Dubai Derby

The old Dubai derby is contested between Al Ahli and Al Nasr. It has its roots from the early 1970's before the formation of the league. The two were the best teams in Dubai and games between the two teams would attract fans from all over the UAE, and even spectators from as far as Kuwait and Jordan.

Active departments

The club is also known as Al Ahli Castle because of its involvement in other professional sports. The club competes in basketball, volleyball,

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

, track sport, table tennis and

track cycling Track cycling is a Cycle sport, bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its i ...

. Al Ahli is also known for its involvement in cultural activities and community services. Al Ahli Drama club established in 1981, to promote Emirati arts and theatrical plays focusing on UAE tradition, heritage and current events. The club's beach soccer team were UAE champions in 2021.

Relationship with La Liga

In 2016, Al Ahli became the first foreign club to sign a partnership agreement with

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

, the first of its kind. The signing of the agreement, staged at La Liga's headquarters in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, marks the beginning of a linkup in which La Liga's experience will be used to support Dubai's leading club in its development, especially via a training program from youth coaches in Spain will be applied. The club's junior sides will gain invitations to leading tournaments there, providing the opportunity to gain valuable experience playing top-class opposition.

Record

_{Notes 2019–20 UAE football season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Arab Emirates

The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Arab Emirates is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in the United Arab Emirates was announc ...
.} Key * Pos. = Position * Tms. = Number of teams * Lvl. = League

Club officials

Current squad

''As of

:''

Unregistered players

Out on loan

Shabab Al Ahli from Board Of Directors

*Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum – President *Sheikh Maktoum Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum – Vice President *Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum – Chairman *Sheikh Mansour Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum – Deputy Chairman

Board members

*Khalifa Sulaiman *Sami Al-Qamzi *Mohammed Al Gergawi *Essam Al Humaidan *Mohammed Ahmed Al-Marri *Hisham Abdullah Al Qassem *Abdullah Mohammed Al Basti *Ahmed Mohammed bin Humaidan

Shabab Al Ahli Football Company Board Directors

*Sheikh Mansour Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum - Chairman *Sami Al Qamzi - Deputy Chairman

Board Members

*Abdul Majeed Hussain *Ibrahim Abdul-Malik *Khalid Buhumaid *Jamal Al Mehairi *Ali Al-Habsi *Saeed Rashid

Honours

Only titles obtained since merger are counted. For the predecessor clubs, see Al Shabab SC and

Domestic

: 9 **Champions: 1974–75, 1975–76, 1979–80, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2013–14, 2015–16,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 2024–25 *

UAE President's Cup The UAE President's Cup, or simply the President Cup, is a association football, football tournament that takes place in United Arab Emirates, between Football team, clubs in the UAE Pro League and the UAE First Division League. The winner qualifi ...

: 11 (record) **Champions: 1974–75, 1976–77, 1987–88, 1995–96, 2001–02, 2003–04, 2007–08,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2018–19,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 2024–25 *

UAE League Cup The UAE League Cup () is a knockout tournament for clubs in the UAE Pro-League. The first edition of the tournament was played in the 2008–09 Etisalat Emirates Cup, 2008–2009 season. In the 2008–09 season, UAE League Cup replaced the UAE Fed ...

: 5 (record) **Champions: 2011–12, 2013–14, 2016–17, 2018–19,

UAE Super Cup The UAE Super Cup () and Charity Champions Cup in the first edition (1989–90), is the curtain raiser of the United Arab Emirates football season. It is played between the previous season's UAE League, Pro-League winners and UAE President's Cup, P ...

: 7 (record) **Champions: 2009,

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, 2014, 2016,

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

*Joint League :1 **Champions: 1974–75

Regional

*Qatar–UAE Super Shield: 1 **Champions: 2023–24 *Qatar–UAE Challenge Shield: 1 **Champions: 2024–25 *Emirati-Moroccan Super Cup: 1 **Champions: 2016

Continental

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

**''Runners-up (1):''

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

References

External links

*
Soccerway Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahli, Al Football clubs in Dubai Football clubs in the United Arab Emirates 1958 establishments in the Trucial States Association football clubs established in 1958