Our History

OUR HISTORY

Al Wasl was founded in 1960 under AlZamalek Club, when a group of young men gathered at the late father Bakhit Salem AlFalasi house in Za’abeel to establish a club that brought them together to practice their sports hobbies, then they decided to rent a small house after the big increase of the club members, which they had to pay 10 dirhams per member to support the club’s budget.

In 1962 AlZamalek moved afterword’s to Sheikha Medea Bint Sultan house under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Rashid AL Maktoum and Sheikh Butti Bin Maktoum AL Maktoum, A member of the team kindly requested H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Rashid AL Maktoum to be the president of the club at the time and his highness was pleased to welcome the idea and participated himself with the team in a couple of match’s.

First team played for Al Zamalek (Al Wasl now): Bakhit Salem, Mohammed Abdelkarim, Ibrahim Mubarak, Abdelkarim Mubarak, Aziz Hassan, Ghanem Fares, Khamis Salem, Saif Fares, Saeed Salem, Abdullah Saif, Salem Ahmed and Sheikh Butti Bin Maktoum AL Maktoum. And the story of our club began to shine in gold in the history of football, where we won our first championship in 1966 after defeating AlShabaab in the final match of Canada Dry Company Cup.

In 1972 H.H. Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed AL Maktoum, vice president of U.A.E. and ruler of Dubai has privileged AlWasl by building the 1st headquarters of the club in Za’abeel.

In 1974 Al Shula and Al Orouba clubs was merged together to join Al Zamalek, under the name of Al Wasl, which is the old name of Dubai, following a successive performance in the 80’s and 90’s that brought us titles and unbeaten records for the club.

H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid AL Maktoum

H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum joined AlZamalek (Al Wasl now) and played as a defender in the team. During that period, the team gained an advanced position, as the team beat Al Nasr 2-1 and AlWahda 3-1, then the English country club 3-2 and Ras Al Khaimah 6-1. After that, His Highness traveled to the United Kingdom to continue his university studies.

Club of The Century

In 2010, the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) awarded Al Wasl club, the club of the century title in U.A.E. for the 20th century in recognition of the successful history of achievements, that led us to the club of the century title, which was wining the league title for Six Times and maintaining to be either champions or runner - up’s for 11 consecutive seasons. Achieving the bronze medal in the AFC Champions League after defeating Tokyo Verdy (Yomiuri FC previously) 4-3 back in 1993.

Za’abeel stadium

About four decades of wonderful memories of wining championship and titles in the emperor's house. The main football stadium in AlWasl Club (Za'abeel Stadium) is one of the biggest stadiums, not only in Dubai but also in U.A.E. where the establishment of the stadium dates back to October 20, 1980 and can accommodate more than 8000 spectators. The stadium was officially opened in a major festival that included a small tournament between AlWasl team, AlAhli club from Bahrain and AlQadisiyah club from Kuwait participated in the festival.

Records

Al Wasl is the only team that participated in all seasons of the league championship since it began in 1974 and the most team played match’s in the league so far
Al Wasl has the longest consecutive match wins in the league history by 12 match’s wins in 1988 season and staying unbeaten for 26 consecutive match’s in the league history
Over the five decades, AlWasl is the only team to have won 4 league titles in one decade 80’s, AlWasl is the only team won the league title with 16 participating teams
Al Wasl maintained staying in the forefront of the league for 11 consecutive seasons either champions or runner-up’s, a record that no team in U.A.E. has approached
Al Wasl is the first Emirati team to achieve an advanced position at the Asian level, managed to get the 3rd place in the AFC Champions league 1993 season, achieving the first Asian football medal representing the U.A.E.
Al Wasl has the biggest match victory in the history of the league against Ras AlKhaimah by defeating them 10 – 1, AlWasl also have the the biggest victory match in the AFC Champions league 1993 season by defeating Wohaib F.C. 10 - 0
Fahd Khamis, the club and national team star, is the top scorer in the league history with 165 goals, and he was awarded the Arab region top scorer title in 1983/1984
Zuhair Bakhit, the club and national team star, is the 1st player in the league history to break the 20 goals barrier at the age of 17 in 1987/1988 season by scoring 25 goals taking the Arab region top scorer title and awarded the Arab MVP