Oday Dabbagh joined the Kuwaiti top flight a mere 18 months ago but he is already on the verge of joining his fourth club in the country. The Jerusalemite who spent the first half of the 2020/21 season on loan to Yarmouk has been revealed as Al-Arabi’s latest reinforcement and will join the ranks of Al-Zaeem.
The details of the contract were not revealed but the attacker will only play out the rest of the season with the club. Al-Arabi’s bitter rivals, Al-Qadsia, still own Dabbagh’s rights; it is believed that the player is simply running out the time left on the contract to enable him to join a club of his choosing, on a free transfer, in the off-season.
Dabbagh first moved to the Kuwaiti League in September 2019, joining the ranks of Salmiya. In December of that year, following a two month period of unpaid wages, he voided his contract and joined Al-Qadsia.
The man who lit up the U23 Asian Championship with Palestine in 2018 had an up and down first season abroad, but still managed to total four league goals despite breaking his collarbone and contracting COVID-19.
Al-Qadsia made the decision to loan Dabbagh to bottom feeders Al-Yarmouk after contracting a sixth foreign player, Nigerian Dennis Sesguh from the Omani League.
Despite playing in a team bereft of talent, Dabbagh’s quality shone through at Al-Yarmouk and his six goals and two assists in nine games made him one of the league’s most prolific goalscorers.
With the exception of Patrick Fabiano, who scored eight of his fourteen goals in a 9-1 demolition of Al-Tadamon, only one other player has scored more goals from open play.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="ar" dir="rtl">هدافي دوري التصنيف : <br><br>- باتريك فابيانو (14) هدف ??<br>- شبيب الخالدي (8) اهداف ??<br>- أحمد الرياحي (8) اهداف ??<br>- السنوسي الهادي (6) اهداف ??<br>- عدي الدباغ (6) اهداف ??<br><br>- الاهداف ستستمر بالدوري الممتاز . <a href="http://t.co/7IPFJwNtDj">pic.twitter.com/7IPFJwNtDj</a></p>— الحدث الرياضي⚽️ (@Q_sportt_) <a href="http://twitter.com/Q_sportt_/status/1343886777480830977?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 29, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In fact, had Al-Yarmouk been a little more stout defensively they might have avoided the drop to the second division. The team conceded a league high 36 goals in 14 games but their 22 goal output made them the fourth best attack in the league. [NB: The Kuwaiti League this year started with 15 teams at the beginning of the season with the bottom five being relegated. The second half of the season will continue with 10 teams.]
Al-Arabi will hope that Dabbagh can similarly transform their attack and return them to league contention.
