Dubai: The shortlisted nominees for this Sunday’s Arabian Gulf League (AGL) Awards were announced on Monday. The event will be held at the St. Regis Hotel on Abu Dhabi corniche from 10pm on July 12.
Al Jazira’s league topscoring striker Mirko Vucinic is the favourite to take the Foreign Player of the Year award for his 25-goal haul last season, but he will face stiff competition from Al Wasl’s Brazilian-Uzbek midfielder Fabio de Lima and Al Ain’s Slovakian winger Miroslav Stoch.
Another Al Jazira forward, Ali Mabkhout, is a frontrunner in the Emirati Player of the Year category after becoming the highest ranked Emirati in the league top scorer’s charts last season with 16 goals. The UAE’s 2014 Gulf Cup and 2015 Asian Cup top scorer — with five goals in each tournament — will be up against Al Ain’s Mohanad Salem and Al Ahli’s Esmail Al Hammadi.
As well as having Stoch and Salem in the above categories, league champions Al Ain also have nominations in the Goalkeeper of the Year award, with Al Ain’s Khalid Eisa going head-to-head with Al Nasr’s Ahmad Shambieh and Al Wahda’s Adil Al Hosani; and Al Ain’s Zlatko Dalic up against Al Wasl’s Gabriel Calderon and Al Shabab’s Caio Junior in the Coach of the Year award. Arabian Gulf Cup and President’s Cup double winners Al Nasr feature prominently in the Rookie of the Year award nominations with both Hussain Abbas Juma and Jasem Yaqoob featuring alongside Al Wahda’s Ahmad Rashid.
Meanwhile, the Fan’s Player of the Year award will be decided by public vote via the @AGLeague social media accounts, with Al Shabab’s Carlos Villanueva nominated with Al Ahli’s Esmail Al Hammadi and Al Ain’s Mohanad Salem.
League champions Al Ain dominate the nominations with five candidates across six categories. Double cup winners Al Nasr are next up with three nominations, while Al Jazira, Al Shabab, Al Wahda, Al Wasl and Al Ahli are all represented with two nominations.
