2024–25 Al Ain FC season

The 2024–25 Al Ain Football Club season is the club's 57th in existence and their 50th consecutive season in the top-level football league in the UAE.

Al Ain

2024–25 season
President	Mohammed Bin Zayed
Chairman	Hazza Bin Zayed
Head coach	Hernán Crespo
Stadium	Hazza Bin Zayed
UAE Pro League	6th
President's Cup	Round of 16
League Cup	First round
AFC Champions League Elite	League stage
FIFA Intercontinental Cup	First round
FIFA Club World Cup	Group stage
Top goalscorer	League: Kodjo Laba (14) All: Kodjo Laba (16)
← 2023–24 2025–26 →

Season overview

Pre-season

On 27 June 2024, Al Ain announced they would be touring in Rabat, Morocco, with four friendly matches against Union de Touarga on 24 July, Kénitra on 1 August, Chabab Mohammédia on 5 August and Raja CA on 10 August.^[1][2]

Management

Position	Name
Coaching staff
Head coach	Hernán Crespo
Assistant coaches	Juan Branda Nicolás Domínguez Ahmed Abdullah
Chief analyst	Carles Martínez
Analyst	Tiago Freire
Goalkeeping coaches	Gustavo Nepote
Fitness coach	Federico Martinetti
U-21 team head coach	Ismail Ahmed
Physiotherapist	Santiago Thompson Felipe Perseu Pianca Abdelnasser Aljohny
Club Doctor	Nikos Tzouroudis
Nutritionist	Ricardo Pinto
Scout	Daniele Di Napoli
Administration staff
Team manager	Ahmed Al Shamsi
Front office
Sporting Director	Rodrigo Mendes[3]

Board of Directors

Office	Name
Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Al Ain SCC Chairman of the Executive Committee Chairman of the Board of Directors	Sultan bin Hamdan bin Zayed
Supervising Sports affairs	Mohammed Al Mahmoud
Supervising Media affairs	Mohammed Al Ketbi
Supervising of Financial and Administrative affairs	Ziad Amir Ahmed Saleh
Supervising the Academy and Talents sector	Abdullah Mohammed Abdullah Khouri

Source: AlAinClub.ae

Players

First Team

^[4][5][6]

N	Position	Nation	Player	Age	Since	Notes
Goalkeepers
1	GK		Mohammed Abo Sandah	29	2014
17	GK		Khalid Eisa (VC)	35	2013
36	GK		Amer Al-Faresi	20	2024	U21
Defenders
3	DF		Kouame Autonne	24	2021
15	DF		Erik Jorgens	24	2020
16	DF		Khalid Al-Hashemi	28	2023
46	DF		Dramane Koumare	20	2024
50	DF		Manea Al Shamsi	23	2021
66	DF		Mansour Al Shamsi	23	2020
—	DF		Khalid Butti	33	2024
—	DF		Marlon Santos	29	2024	on loan from Shakhtar Donetsk
Midfielders
5	MF		Park Youg-woo	31	2023
6	MF		Yahia Nader	26	2018
8	MF		Mohammed Abbas	22	2021	U21
10	MF		Kaku	30	2023
11	MF		Bandar Al-Ahbabi (C)	34	2016
13	MF		Ahmed Barman	31	2013
18	MF		Khalid Al-Balochi	26	2018
20	MF		Matías Palacios	22	2022
21	MF		Soufiane Rahimi	30	2021
26	MF		Ahmed Al-Qatesh	23	2021
30	MF		Hazem Mohammad	20	2023	U19
70	MF		Abdoul Karim Traoré	20	2023	U19
—	MF		El Mehdi El Moubarik	24	2022
Forwards
9	FW		Kodjo Laba	33	2019
77	FW		Rilwanu Sarki	21	2023	U19
90	FW		Eisa Khalfan	22	2021	U21
99	FW		Josna Loulendo	21	2023	U21
—	FW		Mohamed Awadalla	22	2020	U21

New contracts

Date	Pos	No.	Player	Ref.	Notes
12 July 2024	GK	1	Mohammed Abo Sandah	[7]	2026

Transfers

In

No.	Position	Player	From	Fee	Date	Ref.
Summer
—	MF	Mohammed Khalfan	Khor Fakkan	Loan return	1 July 2024
—	FW	Mohamed Awadalla U21	Khor Fakkan			[8]
—	DF	Rafael Pereira	Khor Fakkan
—	MF	El Mehdi El Moubarik	Raja			[9]
—	DF	Khalid Butti	Al Wahda	Free	12 July 2024	[10]
Total				€0 million

Out

No.	Pos.	Player	Transfer to	Fee	Date	Source
Summer
22	MF	Falah Waleed	Dibba Al-Hisn	End of contract	25 June 2024	[11][12]
4	DF	Mohammed Shaker	Khor Fakkan	End of contract	27 June 2024	[11][13]
44	DF	Saeed Juma		End of contract	1 July 2024	[11]
27	MF	Sultan Al-Shamsi	Khor Fakkan	End of contract	1 July 2024	[11][14]
12	GK	Sultan Al-Mantheri	Kalba	End of contract	1 July 2024	[11][15]
—	MF	Mohammed Khalfan	Dibba Al-Hisn	End of contract	3 July 2024	[16]

Loans in

No.	Pos	Player	From	Start date	End date	Ref.
—	DF	Marlon Santos	Shakhtar Donetsk	3 July 2024	End of season	[17]

Pre-season and friendlies

On 27 June 2024, Al Ain announced they would be touring in Rabat, Morocco, with four friendly matches against Union de Touarga on 24 July, Kénitra on 1 August, Chabab Mohammédia on 5 August and Raja on 10 August.^[1]

  Win   Draw   Loss   Fixtures

Union de Touarga v Al Ain

24 July 2024 1

Union de Touarga

v

Al Ain

Rabat, Morocco

Kénitra v Al Ain

1 August 2024 2

Kénitra

v

Al Ain

Rabat, Morocco

Chabab Mohammédia v Al Ain

5 August 2024 3

Chabab Mohammédia

v

Al Ain

Rabat, Morocco

Raja v Al Ain

10 August 2024 4	Raja	v	Al Ain	Casablanca, Morocco
				Stadium: Stade Larbi Zaouli

Competitions

Overview

Competition	First match	Last match	Starting round	Final position	Record
					Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Pro-League	24 August 2024	TBD 2025	Matchday 1	TBD	22	10	6	6	50	31	+19	045.45
President's Cup	TBD	TBD	Round of 16	Quarter Final	2	1	0	1	4	1	+3	050.00
League Cup	18 August 2024	TBD	First round	Second Round	4	3	0	1	9	6	+3	075.00
AFC Champions League	16 September 2024	TBD	League phase	League Phase	8	0	2	6	11	22	−11	000.00
FIFA Intercontinental Cup	22 September 2024	TBD	First round	African-Asian-Pacific Cup Runners-up	2	1	0	1	6	5	+1	050.00
FIFA Club World Cup	June 2025	July 2025	First round	TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	+0	!—
Total					38	15	8	15	80	65	+15	039.47

Last updated: 27 August 2024
Source: Competitions

Pro League

Main article: 2024–25 UAE Pro League

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
3	Al Wahda	23	11	8	4	44	29	+15	41	Qualification for AFC Champions League Elite League stage
4	Al Wasl	23	11	7	5	45	29	+16	40	Qualification for AFC Champions League Two group stage
5	Al Ain	23	10	7	6	51	32	+19	37
6	Al Nasr	23	10	4	9	41	40	+1	34
7	Al Jazira	23	9	6	8	40	36	+4	33

Updated to match(es) played on 5 May 2025. Source: UPLeague
Rules for classification: ^[18] 1) points; 2) head-to-head goal difference; 3) head-to-head goals scored; 4) head-to-head away goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored; 7) number of away goals scored; 8) head-to-head points; 9) fair play ranking 10) draw

Results summary

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Source: Soccerway

Results by round

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26
Ground	H	A	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H
Result
Position

Source: UPLeague
A = Away; H = Home; W = Win; D = Draw; L = Loss; P = Postponed

Matches

The league fixtures were announced on 6 July 2024.^[19]

Al Ain v Khor Fakkan

24 August 2024 1	Al Ain	5–1	Khor Fakkan	Al Ain
21:30 GMT+4 (UAE Time)	Bandar Al-Ahbabi  8' Kaku 14' Rahimi 42' Laba 55' 61' 73' Mohammed Abbas  64'	Report	Lourency  12' Mattheus Oliveira  44' Jonathan Viera 66'	Stadium: Hazza Bin Zayed Referee: Sultan Abdurazzaq

Al Bataeh v Al Ain

30 August 2024 2	Al Bataeh	3–3	Al Ain	Sharjah
18:55	Paulinho 45+1' Álvaro 58' (pen.) Abang 90' Ganiev  90+11'	Report	Laba 9' (pen.) Mohamed Ahmed 12' (o.g.) Bandar Al-Ahbabi 16' Fábio Cardoso  67'	Stadium: Khalid bin Mohammed Referee: Bader Bujamhoor

Al Ain v Al Wasl

26 September 2024 4	Al Ain	4–2	Al Wasl	Al Ain
21:00	Palacios 22'  56' Bandar Al-Ahbabi 30' Kouame Autonne 45+4' Rahimi 68' (pen.)	Report	Ali Saleh  7' Abdulrahman Saleh  11' Caio Canedo 36' Siaka Sidibe 40' Bouftini  57'  74'	Stadium: Hazza Bin Zayed Referee: Clément Turpin

Al Ain v Al Wahda

6 October 2024 5	Al Ain	1–2	Al Wahda	Al Ain
20:45	Rahimi 17'  23' Segovia  90'	Report	Omar Khribin 40' (pen.)  90+3' Rúben Canedo  45+2' Kruspzky 64' Lucas Pimenta  80'	Stadium: Hazza Bin Zayed Referee: Davide Massa

Al Ain v Dibba Al-Hisn

25 October 2024 6	Al Ain	1–1	Dibba Al-Hisn	Al Ain
17:55	Laba 90+3'	Report	Haddadi 71' (pen.) Suhail Abdulla  90+7'	Stadium: Hazza Bin Zayed Referee: Naser AlAli

Al Orooba v Al Ain

21 November 2024 8	Al Orooba	2–4	Al Ain	Fujairah
19:30	Trawally  67' Azadi 73' Appolinaire Kack 78'  81'	Report	Rahimi 12' Laba 29' 62' Mohamed Awadalla 44' Mohammed Abbas  90+1'	Stadium: Al Sharqi Referee: Suhail Abdulla Ali

Al Ain v Baniyas

7 December 2024 9	Al Ain	4–0	Baniyas	Al Ain
19:30	Segovia 33' Laba 44' 75' 88'	Report		Stadium: Hazza Bin Zayed Referee: Adel Al Naqbi

Kalba v Al Ain

11 December 2024 3	Kalba	3–3	Al Ain	Kalba
21:30	Ghayedi 24'  74' Moghanlou 54' Salem Rashid  61' Rejan Alivoda  64' Abdulaziz Al-Hamhami  65' Ghoddos 76' Kouadjo Koffi  89'	Report	Kouame Autonne  69' Laba 79' Sanabria 81' 90+5'	Stadium: Ittihad Kalba Referee: Ahmad Salem Khalfan

Al Jazira v Al Ain

15 December 2024 10	Al Jazira	1–3	Al Ain	Abu Dhabi
19:30	Fekir 52'  89' Khalifa Al Hammadi  71'	Report	Kouame Autonne  50' Laba 63' 69' 85' Erik  65' Park Yong-woo  83' Rahimi  89'	Stadium: Mohammed bin Zayed Referee: Daniel Siebert

Al Ain v Sharjah

11	Al Ain	v	Sharjah	Al Ain
				Stadium: Hazza Bin Zayed

Al Ain v Shabab Al Ahli

TBC 7	Al Ain	v	Shabab Al Ahli	Al Ain
TBC		Report		Stadium: Hazza Bin Zayed

Ajman v Al Ain

TBC 12	Ajman	v	Al Ain	Ajman
TBC		Report		Stadium: Rashid Bin Saeed

Al Ain v Al Nasr

TBC 13	Al Ain	v	Al Nasr	Al Ain
TBC		Report		Stadium: Hazza Bin Zayed

UAE President's Cup

Main article: 2024–25 UAE President's Cup

UAE League Cup

Main article: 2023–24 UAE League Cup

First round

Kalba v Al Ain

18 August 2024 First leg	Kalba	2–3	Al Ain	Kalba
18:05	Caio Eduardo 79' Moghanlou 85' (pen.)	Report	Dramane Koumare 19' Laba 45' Yahia Nader  45+3' Sékou Gassama 66'	Stadium: Ittihad Kalba Referee: Ahmed Hassan Hussain Bilal

Al Ain v Kalba

7 September 2024 Second leg	Al Ain	3–1 (6–3 agg.)	Kalba	Al Ain
17:45	Bandar Al-Ahbabi  42' Segovia 53' Mohamed Awadalla 77' Hamid Mohammed  90+2' Sékou Gassama 90+5'	Report	Yaser Al-Blooshi 28' Sultan Al-Mantheri  63' Habib Al Fardan  85'	Stadium: Hazza Bin Zayed Referee: Nawaf Alzeyouidi

Quarter-Finals

AFC Champions League Elite

Main article: 2024–25 AFC Champions League Elite

League phase

Main article: 2024–25 AFC Champions League Elite league stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Al-Hilal	8	7	1	0	26	7	+19	22	Advance to round of 16
2	Al-Ahli	8	7	1	0	21	8	+13	22
3	Al-Nassr	8	5	2	1	17	6	+11	17
4	Al-Sadd	8	3	3	2	10	9	+1	12
5	Al Wasl	8	3	2	3	8	12	−4	11
6	Esteghlal	8	2	3	3	8	9	−1	9
7	Al-Rayyan	8	2	2	4	8	12	−4	8
8	Pakhtakor	8	1	4	3	4	6	−2	7
9	Persepolis	8	1	4	3	6	10	−4	7
10	Al-Gharafa	8	2	1	5	10	18	−8	7
11	Al-Shorta	8	1	3	4	7	17	−10	6
12	Al Ain	8	0	2	6	11	22	−11	2

Source: Asian Football Confederation
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored; 4) number of matches won; 5) penalty shoot-out if only two teams remain tied and played each other on the final matchday 6) fair play ranking; 7) drawing of lots

  Win   Draw   Loss   Fixtures

Al Ain v Al-Sadd

16 September 2024 (2024-09-16) 1	Al Ain	1–1	Al-Sadd	Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
20:00 UTC+4	M. Palacios 80'	Report	Afif 45+1'	Attendance: 18,926 Referee: Sadullo Gulmurodi (Tajikistan)

Al-Gharafa v Al Ain

1 October 2024 (2024-10-01) 2	Al-Gharafa	4–2	Al Ain	Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor[note 1]
19:00 UTC+3	Joselu 45+2', 48' Sano 54' Brahimi 76'	Report	Kaku 56' (pen.) Rahimi 66'	Attendance: 3,878 Referee: Hiroyuki Kimura (Japan)

Al Ain v Al-Hilal

21 October 2024 (2024-10-21) 3	Al Ain	4–5	Al-Hilal	Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
20:00 UTC+4	Rahimi 39', 67', 90+6' (pen.) Sanabria 63'	Report	Lodi 26' Milinković-Savić 45+2' Al-Dawsari 45+5', 65', 75'	Attendance: 24,126 Referee: Nazmi Nasaruddin (Malaysia)

Al-Nassr v Al Ain

5 November 2024 (2024-11-05) 4	Al-Nassr	5–1	Al Ain	King Saud University Stadium, Riyadh
21:00 UTC+3	Talisca 5', 90+4' Ronaldo 31' Cardoso 37' (o.g.) Wesley 81'	Report	Bento 56' (o.g.)	Attendance: 23,324

Al Ain v Al-Ahli

25 November 2024 (2024-11-25) 5	Al Ain	1–2	Al-Ahli	Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
20:00 UTC+4	Kaku 90+3'	Report	Toney 70', 74'	Attendance: 17,126

Pakhtakor v Al Ain

3 December 2024 (2024-12-03) 6	Pakhtakor	1–1	Al Ain	JAR Stadium, Tashkent[note 2]
19:00 UTC+5	Jurakuziev 6'	Report	Rahimi 49'	Attendance: 1,511

Al Ain v Al-Rayyan

3 February 2025 (2025-02-03) 7	Al Ain	v	Al-Rayyan	Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
20:00 UTC+4

Al-Shorta v Al Ain

17 February 2025 (2025-02-17) 8	Al-Shorta	v	Al Ain	Karbala International Stadium, Karbala[note 3]
19:00 UTC+3

FIFA Intercontinental Cup

Main article: 2024 FIFA Intercontinental Cup

Al Ain qualified for the tournament by winning the 2023–24 AFC Champions League.

First round

African–Asian–Pacific Cup play-off

Al Ain v Auckland City

22 September 2024 (2024-09-22) First round	Al Ain	6–2	Auckland City	Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
20:00 GST	Cardoso 6' Gassama 11' Palacios 45+1' Rahimi 78', 90+4' Kaku 90+2'	Report	Lagos 43' Bevan 54'	Referee: Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria)

Second round

African–Asian–Pacific Cup

Al Ahly v Al Ain

29 October 2024 (2024-10-29) Second round	Al Ahly	3–0	Al Ain	Cairo International Stadium, Cairo
EGY	Abou Ali 32' Ashour 55' Afsha 90+2' (pen.)	Report		Attendance: 52,000 Referee: Halil Umut Meler (Turkey)

FIFA Club World Cup

Main article: 2025 FIFA Club World Cup

Group stage

Main article: 2025 FIFA Club World Cup group stage

Al Ain v Juventus

18 June 2025 Group	Al Ain	v	Juventus	Washington, D.C., United States
21:00 EDT (UTC−4)				Stadium: Audi Field

Manchester City v Al Ain

22 June 2025 Group	Manchester City	v	Al Ain	Atlanta, United States
21:00 EDT (UTC−4)				Stadium: Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Wydad AC v Al AIn

26 June 2025 Group	Wydad AC	v	Al AIn	Washington, D.C., United States
15:00 EDT (UTC−4)				Stadium: Audi Field

Notes

1. Al-Gharafa played their home matches at Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor, instead of their regular home stadium Thani bin Jassim Stadium, Al Rayyan.