Al Dhafra FC

Al Dhafra

Full name	Al Dhafra Football Club
Nickname(s)	Al Fursan Al Gharib (The Western Knights)
Founded	2000
Ground	Al Dhafra Stadium
Capacity	5,020
Owner	Hamdan bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan
Manager	Alen Horvat
League	UAE First Division League
2023–24	7th
Website	http://www.dfsc.ae/dhafra
Home colours Away colours

Al Dhafra FC (Arabic: نادي الظفرة لكرة القدم) is an Emirati professional football club based in Madinat Zayed that competes in the UAE First Division League.^[1]

Their futsal club participated in AFC Futsal Club Championship.

Al Dhafra FC was established in 2000, as part of a policy to promote sports across the country and the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi had no team, so Al Dhafra is the first and only club to be located in the western region.^[2] For most of its history the club was classified as a semi-professional club according to the UAE Pro League committee and did not have licenses to compete in the AFC competitions but the team had continued to appeal for a license since qualifying for the UAE President's Cup for the first time in 2019.^[3] Around 2020 the club finally obtained their licenses, thus all pro league teams can compete in AFC competitions.^[4]

• President's Cup
  • Runners-up (1): 2018–19
  • Finalist (1): 2019–20
• UAE First Division League
  • Champions (2): 2001–02, 2006–07
• UAE Vice Presidents Cup
  • Champions (1): 2012

_{Notes^ 2019–20 UAE football season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Arab Emirates.}

As of 2023 Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules, some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  OMA Mazen Al-Harasi 2 DF  UAE Ali Moustafa 5 MF  UAE Mansoor Al-Harbi 6 DF  TOG Ezeckiel Noumonvi 7 FW  OMA Fares Al-Jabri 8 MF  GHA Zackariah Mohammed 9 FW  UAE Ahmed Al Attas 10 MF  UAE Khalil Ibrahim 11 MF  SRB Slavoljub Srnić 12 DF  UAE Sultan Husain 14 MF  EGY Hossam Loutfy 15 DF  UAE Hamad Al-Marzouqi 17 DF  UAE Ibrahim Al-Hammadi 18 MF  UAE Yousef Ayman 19 FW  GUI Mohamed Yattara

No. Pos. Nation Player 20 DF  GHA Leonard Amesimeku 21 MF  CMR Rostand Djooh 22 MF  UAE Rayan Yaslam 27 DF  OMA Nashid Abdul Qadir 28 MF  BRA Pernambuco 29 FW  UAE Abdullah Al-Hammadi 30 GK  UAE Abdullah Sultan 31 MF  BRA Vitor Moura 44 GK  SYR Amjad Al-Sayed 50 DF  UAE Ibrahim Saeed 55 DF  GRE Adam Tzanetopoulos 70 GK  UAE Jarah Al-Hammadi 71 FW  UAE Saleh Al-Hosani U21 77 MF  UAE Abdullah Fadaaq (on loan from Al-Jazira) — MF  UKR Aghyad Al-Bekri

Name	Nat.	From	To	Ref.
Piet Hamberg		2003	2004
Sebastião Rocha		2005	2006
Ammar Souayah		May 2007	November 2007	[5][6]
Ayman El Ramadi		November 2007	August 2008	[7]
Mohammad Kwid		September 2008	December 2008	[8]
Eid Baroot		December 2008	June 2009	[9]
Laurent Banide		July 2009	February 2010	[10]
Slobodan Halilović		February 2010	March 2010
Michel Decastel		March 2010	November 2010	[11]
Alexandre Guimarães		November 2010	April 2011
Mohammad Kwid		April 2011	June 2011	[12]
Baltemar Brito		June 2011	December 2011	[13][14]
Magdy Mostafa		December 2011	May 2012
Džemal Hadžiabdić		May 2012	December 2012	[15]
Laurent Banide		December 2012	April 2013	[16]
Abdullah Mesfer		April 2013	May 2014
Anel Karabeg		May 2014	September 2014	[17]
Marin Ion		September 2014	January 2015	[18]
Laurent Banide		January 2015	November 2015	[19]
Mohammad Kwid		November 2015	January 2018
Gjoko Hadžievski		January 2018	May 2018	[20]
Vuk Rašović		May 2018	September 2020	[21]
Mohammad Kwid		September 2020	October 2020	[22]
Aleksandar Veselinović		October 2020	January 2021
Mohammad Kwid		January 2021	October 2021
Rogério Micale		October 2021	March 2022	[23]
Badr Al Idrissi		March 2022	May 2022	[24]
Nebojša Vignjević		July 2022	October 2022
Aleksandar Veselinović		October 2022	February 2023
Badr Al Idrissi		February 2023	August 2023
Abdullah Mesfer		August 2023	November 2023
Paulo Comelli		December 2023	February 2024
Alen Horvat		March 2024	Present

• List of football clubs in the United Arab Emirates

• Official website (in Arabic) (archived)