DUBAI // Al Nasr have confirmed Mark Bresciano has officially asked to be released from his contract with the club as the Australian is moving to Al Gharafa in the Qatari capital Doha.
Reports of Bresciano's departure to the Qatari league have been rife since last week. Nasr had initially denied those rumours, but Abdullah Al Bannai, the head of Al Nasr's technical committee, confirmed on Thursday the news and said the club is looking for alternatives.
Al Bannai said the club had received a formal request from Bresciano, through his lawyer, asking for the termination of his contract with Al Nasr.
The 32-year-old midfielder, who top scored for his team in the Pro League last season with nine goals, still had a season left on his two-year contract with Nasr.
Bresciano is the third of Nasr's foreign players from last season to leave the side.
The Italian striker Luca Toni was released after failing to impress following his much-hyped move to Dubai in January while Amara Diane turned down the club's offer of a new deal.
The Brazilian striker Bruno Cesar Correa and Italy's Guiseppe Mascara were brought in as their replacements.
Nasr have also added two new Emirati players to their roster in the past week - Ittihad Kalba's Rashid Malallah and the former Al Wasl goalkeeper Ali Al Ameer.
The club have also signed a number of local players, including Khamis Alajmani and Hamid Ahmed from Sharjah, Dubai’s Hassan Mohammed, Ahmed Medhad of Al Ahli, Ibrahim Mohammed from Dibba Al Fujairah and the goalkeeper Bilal Malallah of Fujairah.
The club’s technical committee has now been given the go-ahead to start the process of finding replacements for Bresciano, who had qualified as their Asian player. Al Bannai said they had four players in mind, all of whom play for their national teams, and details will be announced after an official contract.
Reports in the Iranian media claimed Nasr have approached Esteghlal for their midfielder Mojtaba Jabbari. Ali Fathollahzadeh, the chairman of Tehran club, said they had received a formal inquiry from Nasr.
Across Dubai, Quique Sanchez Flores returned to the UAE to start his second season at Al Ahli after leading them to the Etisalat Cup title in May.
Sanchez Flores supervised his team's training session last night. His assistants have been running the sessions since last week.
The four foreign players – the Brazilian striker Grafite, the Chilean playmaker Luis Jiminez, the Cameroonian midfielder Achille Emana and the Lebanese defender Youssef Mohammed – have been training twice a day, while the Emirati players have been training just once in the night because of the Holy Month of Ramadan.
Elsewhere, Khalid Darwish, and Al Wasl favourite, has left Emirates for Al Shaab, signing a one-year deal with the Sharjah club, who are hoping to return to the Pro League for the first time since 2008/09 through September's play-offs.
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