The exclusion of Mabkhout, 32, came as a surprise, especially since he is the historical top scorer for the UAE national team with 81 goals, and for the UAE League with 194 goals.
Arwaparina did not announce the reasons for excluding Mabkhout, the top scorer of the last edition of the Gulf Cup, “Gulf 24”, which was held in Qatar in 2019, with 5 goals.
Al-Abyad will enter a camp in Dubai for a week, during which he will play a friendly match against his Lebanese counterpart on December 30, before traveling to Basra on January 2.
The UAE will start its matches in the “Gulf 25” against Bahrain, the defending champion, on January 7, in the second group competitions, which also includes Qatar and Kuwait.
The squad of 26 players:
For goalkeepers: Khaled Issa (Al-Ain), Ali Khasif (Al-Jazeera) and Khaled Al-Sanani (Al-Wasl).
For defense: Hassan Al-Mahrami and Khaled Al-Hashemi (Baniyas), Shaheen Abdul-Rahman and Khaled Al-Dhanhani (Sharjah), Khalifa Al-Hammadi (Al-Jazeera), Walid Abbas, Abdulaziz Haikal and Ahmed Jamil (Shabab Al-Ahly), Abdul Salam Muhammad (Al-Ittihad Kalba)
For the center: Walid Falah and Khaled Al-Balushi (Al-Ain), Majid Rashid, Majid Hassan and Muhammad Abdul Basit (Sharjah), Abdullah Ramadan (Al-Jazeera), Hussein Mahdi (Al-Nasr)
For the attack: Ali Saleh and Fabio Lima (Al Wasl), Tahnoon Al Zaabi and Sebastian Tagliabui (Al Wahda), Hareb Abdullah and Yahya Al Ghassani (Shabab Al Ahly), Caio Canedo (Al Ain).