Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: Saudi Arabian legend Mohamed Al Deayea and Chinese superstar Sun Jihai are set to attend the ACL and AFC Cup knockout stage draws at the AFC House on Thursday.
The event, which will be streamed live on www.the-afc.com, kicks off with the AFC Cup draw at 1500 hours (Malaysia time), followed by the AFC Champions League draw at 1600 hours.
Al Deayea, whose former club Al Hilal are in the draw for the quarter-final of the ACL, has appeared in a record 178 matches for The Falcons after making his senior international debut in 1993.
The 37-year old goalkeeper, who retired from international football in 2010, was part of Saudi Arabia’s FIFA U-17 World Championship winning squad in 1989. He was also the key member of the AFC Asian Cup winning Saudi Arabian side in 1996.
In his glittering career, Al Deayea led Al Hilal to four league titles and the Asian Club Championship title in 2000 amongst many other domestic cups and West Asian honours.
Al Deayea ended his Al Hilal career with a clean-sheet 3-0 win against Bunyodkor in the Round of 16 in the 2010 ACL when Al Hilal went on to feature in the semi-final where they lost 2-0 in aggregate to Iran’s Zobahan.
Also to grace the draw is former Crystal Palace and Manchester City’s versatile defensive midfielder Sun Jihai who was the first Chinese to play in the English Premier League and score the goal.
The Dalian-born player started his professional career with Dalian Wanda in 1995 and went on to play in England with Crystal Palace, Manchester City and Sheffield United before returning to China where he is still active with Chinese Super League side Guizhou Renhe as a player-manager.
The 34-year old, who can play at the central midfield, wings or at the back, made his international debut in 1996 against Uzbekistan and was the Chinese FA Young Player of the Year in 1998.