Mahdi calls up Ambar, Yaqoob for King's Cup

UAE coach Mahdi Ali has called up 26 players for a training camp to prepare for the 44th King's Cup to be held in Thailand next month.
The Football Association of Thailand (FAT) has invited the UAE and Jordan for the annual competition to be held in Bangkok from June 3 to 5. Apart from the UAE and Jordan, another team, said to be Montenegro, will also be competing in the tournament.
The King's Cup will be a chance for Mahdi Ali to get a look in on players who are on the fringes of the National team as he prepares for a gruelling third round of the World Cup Qualifiers. The squad, named on Wednesday, consists of mainly UAE Olympic team players as well as few players from the National team. The first team regulars like Omar Abdulrahman, Ali Mabkhout, Ahmed Khalil, Ismail Matar, Ismail Al Hammadi, Amer Abdulrahman, Habib Al Fardan, Ismail Ahmed, Walid Abbas, Mohanad Salem, Haboush Saleh, Mohamed Abdulrahman, Abdulaziz Sanqour, Abdulaziz Haikal and goalkeepers Majed Naser and Khalid Eisa have been rested after a gruelling domestic schedule.
Mahdi Ali has called up exciting youngsters Waleed Ambar and Jassim Yaqoob apart from Mohammed Alakberi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ahmed Barman, Salem Saleh, Mahmoud Khamis and Hamdan Al Kamali.
Forward Waleed Ambar has been impressive in his first season in the Arabian Gulf League with four goals in 21 appearances. The 23-year-old was part of the UAE Under-23 squad at the Asian Games in South Korea. The UAE lads had reached the quarterfinals before going down to North Korea. Ambar was also part of the squad which took part in the AFC Under-23 Championship held in Doha, Qatar, this January. The UAE had reached the quarterfinals before losing to Iraq in extra time. Al Jazira's Khalfan Mubarak and Al Wahda's Mohammed Alakberi too were part of that squad.
The squad will undergo a camp in Dubai from May 16. Players from Al Ain, Al Nasr, Al Wasl, Al Jazira, Al Sharjah, Bani Yas and the Emirates will link-up with the squad after their AFC Champions League and President's Cup commitments. With stiff tests yet to come in the third round of the World Cup qualifiers, Mahdi Ali is using the camp as well as the King's Cup as the first phase of preparations on their road to Russia. The UAE are placed in Group B along with Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Thailand and begin their campaign against Japan on September 1.