How Palestine’s Wessam Abou Ali earned a head-turning move to MLS’s Columbus Crew | Columbus Crew

3594


As soon as I stepped on the field on the King Abdullah II Stadium in southeast Amman in June, Wessam Abou Ali stepped off. Palestine had just had their dreams of the 2026 World Cup ended by a last-minute Oman penalty that was as soft as they come. While some players in white fell to their knees or collapsed crying into the arms of coaching staff, the 26-year-old, with scrunched-up shorts, exited stage left to head to the United States and the global stage of the Club World Cup with Egypt’s Al-Ahly, after impressing so much on the African and Asian one.

Now, after this busiest of summers, the Danish-born star has signed for Columbus Crew – a No 9 for one of MLS’s best teams in need of one, and one who takes up one of the team’s allotment of designated player spots, to boot.

Those designations tend to carry some weight in MLS, but pressure is not going to be an issue for one of the Middle East’s newest stars. This is a player who collapsed on the pitch due to a sudden spike in heart rate in 2021 while in action for Vendsyssel FF in Denmark before waking up in an ambulance and being out of action for nine months. Within weeks of his return, he suffered another serious injury, including fractured ribs and a punctured lung. After undergoing surgery, the rangy striker admitted that he had thought about giving it all up but returned with a renewed conviction. He has been making up for lost time ever since.

skip past newsletter promotion

Originally from Aalborg, Denmark’s fourth-largest city where his family had eventually ended up after leaving Palestine in 1948, the forward spent time in the local league before a move to Sirius in Sweden in 2023 was followed by 10 goals in 16 games. That earned a significant move in January 2024 to Al-Ahly – regarded by most as the biggest club in Africa, with demanding fans and a media dominated by impatient and critical ex-players. He made it look easy. Despite arriving in Cairo well after the Egyptian Premier League season started, Abou Ali grabbed the 2024-25 golden boot with 18 goals. As well as the individual prize, he helped the team to a league and a Caf Champions League title. In all, he managed 35 goals and 10 assists in just 57 appearances for the Red Giants. He couldn’t quite help Al-Ahly to a second successive Champions League triumph, as they fell at the semi-final stage on away goals in May. There was little time to dwell on that, though, as he was off to help Palestine qualify for a first World Cup.

Abou Ali represented…



Source link

Disclaimer


We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We 5guruayurveda.com want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It’s possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.

Website Upgradation is going on. For any glitch kindly connect at 5guruayurveda.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *