The UAE’s first recipient of the hallowed AFC Player of the Year gong, and joint-top scorer across the globe in World Cup 2018 qualifying, will be 27-years old when January 2019’s Asian Cup comes along. On home soil, to boot.
These are meant to be the salad days for any elite striker; the point when explosive youth and penalty-box knowhow intersect to prolific effect.
Instead, Khalil heads into Thursday’s friendly against Honduras in Barcelona with more to prove than anybody else in Alberto Zaccheroni’s dysfunctional Whites set-up.
Extend his bewildering year then, or in Tuesday’s meeting with Venezuela, and the case for him playing a major role in the Emirates next year recedes even more.
Especially when rumours about the imminent naturalisation of record-breaking, Argentina-born centre forward Sebastian Tagliabue – the Arabian Gulf League’s top foreign goal grabber of all time, at Al Wahda – refuse to dampen.
In an unprecedented turn of events, Khalil has bounced between boyhood club Al Ahli, Al Jazira, Al Ain and back to the rebadged Shabab Al Ahli Dubai Club since April 2017.
From the start of 2017/18 until the present day, 15 appearances in the top flight have generated just four goals.
In the same period, Jazira’s Ali Mabkhout has scored 19 times in 21 matches.
For Tagliabue, he’s notched 28 goals in 26 matches. Some going.
📰 الأبيض يستعد لمواجهة هندوراس ودياً "الخميس"
— UAE NT (@uaent2019) October 9, 2018
التفاصيل 👇https://t.co/7Ekgnn3ZAF#منتخب_الإمارات pic.twitter.com/oLRYgYJGI2
Khalil’s mid-career sojourn has not been all his own doing. An ambitious move to 2017 Club World Cup entrants Jazira ended in a rancorous contract wrangle.
A mid-season escape to Al Ain saw him enter, undercooked, into a winning outfit.
This, however, does not excuse what has followed back at Rashid Stadium.
Argentinians Mauro Diaz and Emiliano Vecchio offer a healthy production line. They’ve contributed to Ecuador striker Jaime Ayovi’s six goals during seven run-outs.
Khalil, in contrast, has collected just 134, goalless, minutes of action. His solitary ‘assist’ for Moldova winger Henrique Luvannor in October 4’s 2-1 win at Ittihad Kalba was a mishit shot.
Every forward under the miserly Zaccheroni has struggled to find the back of the net. For Mabkhout, this proclivity to underwhelm has only appeared on international duty.
With the Italian supremo forced to ditch his trademark 3-4-3 formation and utilise a familiar 4-2-3-1, competition for places has become that much fiercer.
Reputation, alone, shouldn’t be enough to win starts when the continent’s finest come to the UAE. At the moment, sadly, it’s all Khalil has.
