DUBAI // Mehrdad Oladi is facing a Shakespearean dilemma. His heart is torn between his love for Al Shabab and his loathe to stay on at the club after perceived injustices. The Iranian, a hero with the Shabab fans, has finished his two-year contract with the club and has several lucrative offers from elsewhere, but a part of him wants to stay on.
"I really, really love this club and I have always given my best for the team, every time I have been given an opportunity," said the 24-year-old forward, who is blessed with superb technical and dribbling skills. "I could continue, but I think maybe they don't want me." The "they", according to club sources, refers to coach Toninho Cerezo, who dumped him in the reserves for most of the first-half of the season.
"Everybody knows what happened to me here at the start of the season," added Oladi. "I was also hurt by the way they treated me when I was injured. Their attitude towards me was not very good. "But I don't know anything yet, so it is best I don't say anything at this moment. I wish Shabab all the best, whether I am here or not. A part of my heart will always be with them." As Shabab struggled in the first-half of the season, with just 10 points from 11 games, Cerezo was forced to make the changes and he brought Oladi into the fold.
The Iranian responded immediately, working tirelessly for the team as they climbed their way up the Pro League table. His hard work, coupled with his class, endeared him to officials and fans alike. Oladi was Shabab's best man on the pitch in virtually every game, scoring seven goals and providing numerous assists as the defending champions finished fifth on a respectable 34 points. Yet, Cerezo remained unconvinced. Recently, the Brazilian commented: "When Oladi plays for the team, he is very good. But sometimes he plays for himself and then it creates a lot of problems."
Such public condemnation from the coach has convinced Oladi he needs to move on. A club official revealed that Oladi was in tears when he spoke to his colleagues after the end of the season. According to the official, Cerezo would say he wanted Oladi to stay in meetings with the club officials, but when alone with the player, the Brazilian would tell him he is not needed. As Cerezo rejected him, Oladi has found admirers at Al Wasl and Al Nasr who are keen to grab the unsettled striker. There has also been interest from his homeland and some teams in Europe too.
"I am talking to Wasl and Nasr and let's see what happens," he said. "They are both top sides and I have a lot of respect for them.I also have offers from Iran and from some clubs in Germany as well. "But it is too early to say anything. Let's see what happens. I have to think about my future and make this decision. My future is very important to me. "I want to improve my football and grow as a player, and that will eventually be the final consideration when I decide my next destination."
Oladi's impressive performances during the season have also earned him a call to the Iranian national team for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. "I have been included in the team for the UAE game," he said. "I thank God for it. I want the national team to do better and I will try my best to contribute towards that. "Training with this team also helped me a lot. We have some very good players and I hope Shabab do better next season. We can win the championship again like last year.
"This year also we did well and reached the final of the President's Cup and kept alive our hopes of reaching the knockout stages of the Asian Champions League until the final game. "So it has been a very important season for us, but I believe we can do a lot better than this." Oladi still uses "we" and "us" when he refers to Shabab, showing his depth of dedication to the side. Cerezo, however, has other plans and there seems no place for the Iranian in them. Shabab's loss than should be Wasl or Nasr's gain.
arizvi@thenational.ae
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
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The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity