Dubai: Ittihad Kalba has taken a U-turn on Brazilian midfielder Sidney Moraes Da Almeida Junior after he was sent off for dissent in a friendly match against Dibba Fujairah on Friday night.
The match would have decided if the 33-year-old was to win a one-year contract with the newly promoted club to star alongside other foreign signings like compatriot Carlos Eduardo Ferrari ‘Caka' and French-Guinean Simon Feindouno in the UFL next season.
However, his red card did little for his cause and coach Patricio says the club are now pursuing other options with technical staff analysing CVs. "Sidney didn't play very well in his last game. Football is like this. He is a nice player with good experience but he didn't give everything. I don't know what happened. He wasn't showing anything in friendly games," he said.
The club is now rumoured to be interested in Lourival Rodrigues Assis Filho, a 26-year-old Brazilian midfielder with experience at Brazil's Serie D Iraty, Serie A Avai and Serie B America de Natal. No one at Ittihad could confirm if the player was on trial at Kalba.
