Around two years ago I posted about Abdullah Al-Moussawi, an 11 year old Kuwaiti boy with incredible football skills. Someone uploaded a video of him on YouTube playing football and called the video “the new Maradona from Kuwait“. The video become popular and ended up catching the eye of a football scout in Holland who later tried to get Abduallah to move and train in Holland. Abduallah became a sensation in Holland and was given the nickname “the Pearl of Arabia”. But there was a bit of controversy and the move never happened. You could read my old post for the full story [Here]
Now that two years have passed I thought I would post a followup and let everyone know what Abdullah has been up to since then. Well first thing you’ll notice from the pictures is the fact he cut his hair and it’s now really short. He’s still living in Kuwait and hasn’t move to Holland just yet. He’s been training in Kuwait but with older kids so that its more challenging for him. Every six weeks he travels to Holland where he puts on the #10 jersey and plays for the top Dutch club SBV Excelsior. The biggest change for him will come next year since Abdullah and his family are currently finalizing things so they can move to Holland where he will be able to get the best training possible.
I don’t have any new videos to share but I did get some pictures of Abdullah playing in Holland. You can check them out below. He’s got a lot of potential to become a really great player.
Update: I just got an email with more information about the academy team Abduallah plays on:
SBV Excelsior is connected to Feyenoord Rotterdam. They share the same football academy. Abdullah is now training at the same academy where famous players like Robin van Persie (Manunited) and Kalou (Chelsea) started their carreer. A famous academy which has been elected as best academy in Holland 3 times in the past 4 years.
Also 8 of the players of the current first squad of Feyenoord (Ere divisie is Dutch Premier League) started their carreer at SBV Excelsior.
Thanks Marcel
5 replies on “The Pearl of Arabia – A follow up”
Amazing. Best of luck to him
Kuwait needs more positive news like this.
Imagine what more could happen if the sports authorities really promoted sport in schools and held competitions and camps to cultivate local talent.
Instead we have to do 11th hour petitions to fly the Kuwait flag at the Olympics.
Fantastic. Wish him all the best.
Perfect! a lesson or two to learn, invest in people! and give ’em an opportunity … Best of luck to the young fellow!
Mashalah. I hope one day to wear a jersey with Almoussawi written in the back