At 36 years and 69 days, with 142 national team caps and well over 300 appearances for Muharraq Club under his belt, legendary Bahraini goalkeeper Sayed Mohammed Jaffer has experienced plenty during his 17-year career.
The highs, such as winning the AFC Cup with Muharraq as a 23-year-old in 2008, and the devastating lows, such as back-to-back losses in the final intercontinental playoff for the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups: Jaffer has experienced it all.
So as he prepares for this weekend’s AFC Cup final against Uzbekistan’s FC Nasaf, he has a simple message for his teammates, especially the younger ones such as talented 21-year-olds Ahmed Al-Sherooqi and Abdullah Al-Haiki who will experience their first continental final: Enjoy the moment.
“They have to enjoy (the moment), they have to feel free to play and enjoy (themselves),” he told Arab News.
“If they are enjoying they will perform well, they can do what they normally do. Especially those who are young and talented, if they are afraid and if they’re nervous they cannot play, they cannot show their talent.”
While much has changed since 2008, and Jaffer himself is now a much more seasoned footballer and person, he still maintains that he can take lessons from the experience in 2008 to help him and his team this week.
“You have to live this beautiful moment in the moment, (because) you don’t know when you’ll get to live it again,” a relaxed-looking Jaffer said as he spoke to Arab News four days before the final.
“For me it’s 13 years from (2008) until now, so we don’t know when we will live it again. So we have to enjoy the moment. These are unique moments, you cannot live it every time or every year, so from my experience we have to enjoy this moment.”
It has been a slightly shorter path to the final for Muharraq Club this time around, with COVID-enforced changes to the AFC Cup format meaning that the group stage was condensed from six matches to just three, while they had to navigate one less knockout fixture than their opponents FC Nasaf to reach the final.
But that is to take nothing away from their achievement of making the final of the AFC Cup for a third time in their history, after previously making it in both 2006 (losing to Al-Faisaly) and 2008 (a victory against Safa).
While topping Group B ahead of Al-Salt (Jordan), Al-Ansar (Lebanon) and Markaz Balata (Palestine) may not have surprised many, knockout stage victories over Lebanon’s Al-Ahed, the 2019 AFC Cup champions, and the highly fancied Kuwait SC, with the likes of former Chelsea star John Obi Mikel and Socceroos defender Ryan McGowan, proved to everyone that the 34-time Bahraini champions deserved their spot in the final and are a force to be reckoned with.
With a spot in the qualifying rounds of the 2022 AFC Champions League on offer for the winner of Friday’s final, both teams have added motivation heading into the game. With a capacity crowd of about 20,000 expected at the Al Muharraq Stadium, just outside the capital of Manama, the home team will enjoy not just a home-ground advantage, but a home-crowd advantage too.
“The fans they give us a very, very, very big advantage for us,” Jaffer said.
“You cannot imagine how much stronger we feel with them (behind us), we feel them like they are behind our back. They give us big, big support.”
And while the name on the scoreboard will read “Muharraq,” Jaffer says when they step out onto the field on Friday evening they are first and foremost representing Bahrain.
“From the first game of this tournament, we are representing Bahrain first and second we are representing Muharraq,” he said.
With his career drawing to a close, each opportunity to win a trophy, particularly a continental one, carries more meaning. The veteran shot-stopper knows this might be his last chance to add a continental title to his glittering career.
“As a player, especially at my age, all I am thinking about now is ending my career with as many trophies as possible,” he said. “Especially AFC or Gulf trophies, it will mean a lot to me.”
This will be the fourth time teams from West Asia and Central Asia have met in the final of the AFC Cup, and in a good omen for Muharraq, it is West Asia leading the ledger 2-1. However, that solitary win for Central Asia was by FC Nasaf when they defeated Kuwait SC 2-1 in 2011.
None of those stats or history will matter much to the players taking to the field this weekend, for they know their destiny is in their own hands; and with Bahrain’s greatest goalkeeper between the sticks and leading the way, Muharraq could not be in safer hands.
