Jorge Luis Pinto gathers UAE squad for friendlies against Tajikistan and Bahrain

Sharjah captain Shaheen Abdelrahman rewarded with a return to the national set-up

Sebastian Tagliabue during training with the UAE national team. Courtesy UAE FA

The UAE national team will meet in Dubai on Monday ahead of two friendlies during the upcoming international break.

Manager Jorge Luis Pinto announced his squad on Friday for the friendlies against Tajikistan and Bahrain, with the former taking place on Thursday and the latter on November 16. Training will be held at Al Nasr club.

Sharjah captain Shaheen Abdelrahman has been rewarded for his side’s superb start to the season - they currently lead the Arabian Gulf League - with a return to the national set-up, while the naturalised trio of Sebastian Tagliabue, Fabio De Lima and Caio Canedo were once more called up. Al Jazira’s Omar Abdulrahman and Shabab Al Ahli Dubai striker Ahmed Khalil miss out through injury.

Ismail Matar, the in-form Al Wahda forward, was another high-profile exclusion despite his stellar recent displays for his club. Last week, the 37-year-old scored one of the best goals of his distinguished career to help secure the league's player-of-the-month award for October.

The national team met up last month, where they lost 2-1 in a friendly against Uzbekistan in Dubai – Pinto’s first official friendly in charge. The Colombian, 67, was appointed in July with the remit of guiding the UAE to a second World Cup appearance, at the next finals in Qatar in 2022.

Previous to the role, Pinto had never managed outside South America. Most notably, he led Costa Rica to the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

In August, the Asian Football Confederation confirmed the continued postponement of all World Cup qualifiers, because of the coronavirus pandemic. The fixtures had originally been set for March and June.

As of yet, no new date for the rearranged matches – the UAE have four left to play in the second phase – has been set. Fourth in the five-team Group G, the national team has still to face Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.