#maatouk

This article first appeared in the Daily Star on November 5, 2011

Of the 22 Lebanon players who convened at a training camp in Doha this week ahead of the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Kuwait and South Korea, five currently play their club football outside of Lebanon.

They also make up what many consider to be the spine of the side, with Youssef Mohammad (Al-Ahli, UAE) and Ramez Dayoub (Magway, Burma) in defense, captain Roda Antar (Shandong Luneng, China) in midfield, and Mohammad Ghaddar (Al-Jaish, Syria) and Hasan Maatouk (Ajman, UAE) up front. There is little doubt that coach Theo Booker will look to these players to lead the way in the upcoming games.

While the return of former Bundesliga players Mohammad and Antar to the national fold has been much heralded, it is 24-year-old forward Maatouk who is the greatest cause for excitement.

Against Kuwait last month, Maatouk’s forays down the left-hand side constituted Lebanon’s principal attacking weapon, and despite being deployed as a winger rather than in his favored position as an out-and-out striker, he still managed to come away with two goals.

Few of the 40,000 Lebanon fans that turned up to the game will forget the first, as he cut in from the left, playing a one-two with Abbas Atwi before gliding past two Kuwait defenders and striking the ball emphatically into the bottom corner.

Maatouk’s second goal, a calmly taken penalty late-on that ought to have won the game for Lebanon, took his tally for the national team to 13 in just 24 appearances, comfortably the best strike rate of Lebanon’s forwards. Factor in his scoring record for Ahed before his transfer to Ajman at the end of September – 89 goals in 120 appearances over six seasons – and it becomes clear that Maatouk knows his way to a goal.

Players with natural goal-scoring ability are like gold dust. They are both a joy and a constant cause for concern for coaches, who fear nothing more than their leading striker suffering an injury or loss of form. Teams are built around such players. Unlikely victories are won through a single moment of class. From an early age, Maatouk was identified as one of those rare players capable of turning a game on its head. Hence, as Booker put it, “he is almost impossible to substitute.”

Despite his fearsome scoring record, his coaches are convinced that such form marks only the beginning. Booker sees him as a potential star of the next decade: “A player like him only comes round every 10 years, not only for Lebanon. Look at all the other countries. Everything comes in waves. It’s not every year that you have a superstar.”

His new club coach at Ajman, the Iraqi Abdul-Wahab al-Qadir, who fought hard to get Maatouk on a season-long loan from Ahed, shares Bucker’s belief that Maatouk is one for the future: “Maatouk is an excellent player. He’ll be important in the future, since he has great technical qualities,” he told Emirati paper Al-Ittihad.

As his coaches for club and country see it, Maatouk is no mere goal poacher; both managers have stationed him in a wide role on the left hand side of a front three. It is a position designed to make the most of Maatouk’s ability with the ball at his feet.

Though he may sometimes run down blind alleys, Maatouk’s direct style of play gives Lebanon an attacking edge that they might otherwise be lacking, and the wide role gives him more opportunities to take on his defender. Moreover, as a right-footer playing on the left, Maatouk’s natural inclination is always to head towards goal, meaning that he still carries a goal-scoring threat even when not stationed centrally.

While his first goal against Kuwait amply demonstrated this, an even more eye-catching strike was Maatouk’s second goal during an impressive debut for Ajman in the Etisalat Cup in October. Picking the ball up just inside the opposition half, Maatouk cut in from the left at pace before smashing the ball into the top right corner from 25 yards out. In the stands, the Ajman owner was on his feet, clearly liking what he saw from his new signing.

A two-goal man-of-the-match performance is some way to announce yourself at your new club, but Maatouk doesn’t seem to be getting carried away by his good beginning:

“I will do my very best to play at a higher level in the coming matches, which will be more difficult after my wonderful start with “the Oranges” [Ajman’s nickname],” he told Al-Ittihad after the game.

Clearly a level-headed individual, there appears to be no danger that the success will go to his head. He made a point of acknowledging how others at the club had helped him to slot seamlessly into his new team:

“I’d like to thank my teammates who helped me on the pitch and the coach who gave me the opportunity, as well as the crowd who gave me a great welcome,” he told the Al-Ittihad reporter.

While Maatouk has failed to register any more goals for his new club, newly promoted Ajman have enjoyed a promising start to the 2011/12 Pro-League season, and remain unbeaten after six games in the league and cup. As the club’s designated Asian player, Maatouk will no doubt have a vital role to play if Ajman are to survive in a division lit up by the presence of big names like Diego Maradona, the coach of Al-Wasl, David Trezeguet and Asamoah Gyan.

Playing in the same league as international stars well known to European football fans will doubtless have its benefits for Maatouk. Such illustrious names give football in the UAE a far higher profile than that enjoyed by the Lebanese game, while the financial rewards of playing in the Emirati state are considerable.

As-Safir newspaper reported that Maatouk will receive $100,000 from his contract with Ajman. Lebanese clubs just can’t compete with this sort of figure, hence a player like Maatouk would choose to leave Ahed, the most successful club in Lebanon over the past two years, for a newly promoted side in the UAE.

Whether the move is that big a step up for Maatouk in terms of the standard of football is open to debate. And despite the league’s higher international profile, the UAE clubs fare little better than their Lebanese counterparts when it comes to drawing in the fans – just over 2,000, slightly under the average attendance at Pro-League fixtures, turned out to watch Ajman’s first league game against Bani Yas. Though football in the UAE may on the surface appear more professional than the Lebanese game, one gets the sense that big names and big wages mask a lack of interest in the game at the grassroots level.

What is clear is that Maatouk’s move to the UAE has put him very much in the shop window. Only last week, Maradona spoke of how he had stayed up all night to watch Ajman, mentioning Maatouk as one of the team’s “outstanding” players. Last month, UAE channel Abu Dhabi Sports reported a rumor that Borussia Dortmund have been weighing up a move for Maatouk, suggesting that he might one day follow the path forged by his Lebanon teammates Roda Antar and Youssef Mohammad.

The sort of exposure that Maatouk can get in the UAE is sadly not available to players who remain in Lebanon. Though a move to Europe may beckon in the future, for now it must be hoped that the experience that Maatouk gains in the UAE will help him develop into the “superstar” that Booker has predicted he’ll become. Maatouk’s time in the UAE will have benefited Lebanese football as a whole, helping the national team in the short term, and providing inspiration Lebanon’s aspiring footballers in the long run.