Al Ahli have signed Lima from Portuguese club Benfica just in time to register him for their Asian Champions League squad.
The Brazilian striker, 32, becomes the Dubai club’s first major signing this summer and concludes an exhausting search for a centre-forward to help fire their bid for continental success.
Ahli contest the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time next month with the first of the two legs against Naft Tehran on August 26. They host the Iranian side at the Rashid Stadium three weeks later.
The deadline for registering players for the Champions League is Saturday, but Ahli acted to ensure Lima was recruited in time to be included in their final roster. He arrives on a two-year contract with the option of a third year
They first registered an interest in the former Belenenses player early last month.
Lima began his career in 2003 at Mixto in Cuiaba and represented nine different clubs in his homeland before moving to Portugal. After one season at Belenenses, he transferred to Braga, where in his second year he scored 20 Primeira Liga goals to help the club finish third.
Lima moved to Benfica on the final day of the 2012 summer transfer window and concluded his debut campaign with 30 goals in all competitions. Last season, he found the net 19 times in 44 matches to take his overall tally for Benfica to 70 goals in 144 appearances.
During his time at the Estadio da Luz, Lima twice won the Portuguese championship and collected three domestic cups. He was also twice on the losing side in the Europa League final, most recently in the 2014 shootout defeat to Sevilla.
At Ahli he joins fellow imports Everton Ribeiro, Kwon Kyung-won, Ciel and Oussama Assaidi, although the futures of the latter two remain unclear. For now, it is believed Ahli will continue with the trio of Brazilians and Kwon, with Assaidi making way.
The 2013/14 Arabian Gulf League champions had previously failed in an attempt to acquire Luiz Adriano from Shakhtar Donetsk – the striker chose to sign for AC Milan instead – while they have recently been heavily linked with Swansea City’s Bafetimbi Gomis and Fenerbahce’s Moussa Sow.
Either player could still join the club, although Sow would seem the more likely addition.
When contacted by The National on Friday, Gomis’s representative said he would not comment on his client’s future.
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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