Bani Yas players and staff alike have queued up to offer their praise to on-loan star Mohamed Abou-Treika after the Egyptian guided the Pro League club to GCC Champions League success in his last game.
Abou-Treika, 34, joined Bani Yas on-loan in January and has proved to be an enormous success, which culminated on Thursday night when he scored his side’s opener in their 2-0 second leg win over Al Khor.
The attacking midfielder, who also scored the decisive goal in the semi-final win over Najran, will now head back to Cairo to be with his national team, before re-joining his parent club, Al Ahly.
Abou-Treika hinted after the game that he would be open to staying in Al Shamkha but Ahly have insisted that is not an option. Instead, Al Orafi revealed the club were keen to send him back to his homeland with some silverware.
“This was the last game for Abou-Treika as he has a camp with Egypt and his contract has now finished with Bani Yas and Ahly have refused to renew with us,” Al Orafi told Sport360°. “We wanted to give him a present, a final, a Gulf cup and a gold medal. He helped us too much and did even more for us than I had asked him before.”
Despite only being with the Al Shamkha outfit since the end of January, Abou-Treika is clearly a popular player with fans, team-mates and coaching staff.
With echoes of David Beckham in Paris last weekend, the biggest cheers from a near-capacity crowd were reserved for the 97-times capped 34-year-old who made sure he acknowledged all four corners of the ground before trotting down the tunnel with his winner’s medal hung proudly around his neck.
Australian midfielder Nick Carle will be following Abou-Treika out of the Bani Yas Stadium exit door following Sunday’s trip to Al Wasl, and he said: “What more can I say about Abou-Treika? He’s an absolute gentleman and professional. It’s been an honour to have met him and to have worked with him.”
On an emotionally charged night in Al Shamkha, Al Samawi’s 3-1 aggregate win gave them their first trophy since they claimed the President’s Cup 21 years ago.
Al Orafi was the captain when Bani Yas beat Al Nasr at Zayed Sports City in 1992 to lift their only other major piece of silverware, but after the game he refused to bask in the glory of that achievement.
Instead, he dedicated the win to the club’s chairman, and Minister of Interior and Deputy Prime Minister, Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan as well as the Bani Yas board and their late winger Theyab Awana.
His brother, Fawaz, was on the pitch at the final whistle having come on for Sultan Ghaferi late in the game. A number of players, led by captain Yousef Jaber, wore T-shirts emblazoned with a tribute to their former team-mate who lost his life in a tragic car accident in September 2011, as they collected their Gulf trophy.
READ MORE:
– Abou-Treika inspires Bani Yas to Gulf glory
– VIDEO: Egypt’s Abou-Treika wants Bani Yas stay
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