#30 Al-Rayyan (3rd Shirt, 2007/2008)

10:28 al-rayyan , al-rayyan 3rd shirt , al-rayyan shirt , football shirt collection , joao tomas , qatar clubs , qatar football , qatar football shirt , qatar league , rare football shirt 1 Comments

I still remember when the first football stars started moving to middle-east clubs, back in 2002 and 2003. Qatar, Kuwait, sometimes Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates all looked like fancy destinations for ageing football players that wanted some huge loads of money before their iminent retirement. I remember Desailly and Batistuta moving to Qatar, and later Frank and Ronald de Boer joined them. The dutch twins both played for Al-Rayyan, and I guess that was the first time I heard about the club.

I was looking for some shirts to order along with some friends - to save shipping costs - and I knew I had to pick up one from a Qatari club. They were cheap, rare, and I didn't own one yet. I went with this Al-Rayyan shirt, because the design looked ok, and I knew a few things about them.


If you look back at their history, since 2003 it looks a bit of a golden retirement house for famous players. They first signed Hierro, Mario Basler and Ali Benarbia. They were all in their last days as a player.

Already a bit fat, this is Hierro in Al-Rayyan home shirt.

Many followed him: Frank and Ronald de Boer, Sonny Anderson, Salomon Olembé, Fabrice Fiorese, Emile Mpenza, Sabri Lamouchi... and portuguese striker João Tomás. He wasn't even old yet, but he moved there back in 2006 (he was like 29 or 30) after good seasons with Braga.

Buy one, get two stars!

Couldn't find a picture of him playing for Al-Rayyan, so here is João Tomás in Rio Ave.

João Tomás scored lots and lots of goals during his career, but never managed to get his place in the national squad. After he moved to Al-Rayyan, he returned to Braga and then moved to Boavista (back then already in the 2nd League). Then he signed for Rio Ave, where he's been scoring a fair amount of goals - 26 in 2 and half seasons.

In 2009, Al-Rayyan signed Afonso Alves. Now here's a guy who decided to finish his career earlier than the usual. After amazing seasons with Heerenveen in Holland, the future seemed quite bright for the brazilian striker. Middlesborough signed him, in what was definitly a disappointing transfer for such a popular guy. I guess everyone was expecting him to sign for a bigger club, but when he decided not to show up to a couple of training sessions I guess Heerenveen didn't have much option rather than selling him on the very last day of the winter transfer window. Boro got the guy, but he never delivered: just 10 goals in two seasons.

Alves then moved to Al-Sadd, and then to Al-Rayyan, where he still plays.

This shirt is way cooler than mine.

And that's pretty much it. A former Boavista and Braga defender, Moisés, plays there too. I really liked him, he was a great centre-back.

As you can see, Al-Rayyan changed shirt manufacturers recently, from local Burrda to Adidas. It's not that my Burrda shirt isn't cool, but it isn't exactly top-quality.


Here is the lion I mentioned earlier. I'm not really a fan of this kind of water-mark stuff, but it kind of gives a original look to the shirt. I've been trying to find pictures of Al-Rayyan actually using their 3rd kit, and all I got was this:

Close enough.

Yep, that's the same shirt.

And a video of a goal in this very same match (against Al-Arabi):


Quite an impressive goal! The defenders looked really lousy, but it is a great run anyway.


Now that the money has moved to China (and even India), if you want to have a look at the stars who once shined in middle-eastern football, check this 20 Minuten gallery. They do include Taribo West in their list, but it's still cool to see.