India vs UAE: Super star striker Ali Mabkhout - what you need to know

As India prepare to take on UAE in their second international friendly of the year ahead of their World Cup - Asian Cup qualifiers in June, striker Ali Mabkhout is undoubtedly the player to watch out for. 

The 30-year-old forward is Al Jazira academy's product and started featuring for the first team from the 2008-09 season onwards. 

In a career that has spanned 13 years, the prolific forward has broken several records. Two of them stand out among the neutrals - he broke Adnan Al Talyani's record to become UAE's all-time top goalscorer with 60 international goals. He is the all-time top scorer at the club level as well. 

Mabkhout has become a one-club player. He has been linked to Premier League and La Liga clubs in the past but the striker's commitment to his parent club has been unmatched. 

One of the biggest moments in his career came when he took on Cristiano Ronaldo and co. as Al Jazira faced off against Real Madrid in the FIFA Club World Cup in 2017. Ronaldo and Bale scored in the second half to clinch a 2-1 win in the semi-final against Al Jazira and the Los Blancos head coach Zinedine Zidane was in awe of their opponents. 

“They have two quality players, Mabkhout and Romarinho, who gave our defence a tough test,” the former World Cup winner had said after the game. 

Mabkhout had a stellar AFC Asian Cup campaign in 2015 which propelled him to international fame. He scored five goals from six matches and ended the campaign as the tournament's top scorer - bettering the tally of the likes of Tim Cahill, Keisuke Honda and Heung-min Son. In one of the tournament's games against Bahrain, Mabkhout scored 14 seconds into the game and recorded the fastest goal scored in Asian Cup history. 

In the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, Almoez Ali (9 goals) overtook Mabkhout (4 goals) for the topscorer's prize but the latter still came second. In two Asian Cup tournaments, Mabkhout has nine goals, just five short of the legendary Ali Daei. 

India knows what they are up against when they face Ali Mabkhout. In their second group of the 2019 Asian Cup, the Al Jazira striker struck the second goal and sealed a 2-0 win for UAE against India.

Mabkhout is currently one of the most feared strikers in Asia and is very much an in-form asset for UAE who have also resumed their preparations for the World Cup qualifiers.