During the yearly football calendar, the summer is when leagues are decided and the players go for short holidays, before returning to routine and onto the teams’ training camps.
Summer is also the time for team managers and directors to strengthen their squads and work on an important area: the transfer market.
Rumours and inventions by journalists or fantasist fans are an integral part of the scene. If you want to consume reliable information, you need to choose your sources carefully and stick to them. It is a difficult task, as there are very few reliable sources in the ocean of cheap football gossip.
While in modern football, players change clubs regularly, there are few transfers that have been etched on the collective memory of football fans around the world. Luis Figo from Barcelona to Real Madrid; Ronaldinho from PSG to Barcelona; Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United to Real Madrid; Zlatan Ibrahimović, each time to another club; and of course, Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona, a transfer saga which paralysed Arsenal fans with uncertainty for two long summers, wondering whether their captain would stay or leave.
During the past month, millions of people have been talking about one transfer. It wasn’t Arturo Vidal, Arda Turan or Memphis Depay and it was happening far away from Avenida Aristides Maillol in Barcelona, or Ashburton Grove in north-east London. It was Ashraf Nu'man, the star of the Palestinian national team, who caused football fans in the Arab world to argue and fight, wondering where he will be working his magic next season.
Ashraf Nu'man, who is 29 years old, is a native of Wadi Nis, a small village of 900 people, which sits south of Bethlehem, near the settlement of Efrat. He started his career with the village’s local football team, former Palestinian League Champions, Taraji Wad al-Nis. Nu'man is a lanky attacking midfielder/forward, who is 1.85m tall, weighs 65kg and has exceptional ball control and a unique technique. Nu'man proudly represented Taraji, an authentic family club, based almost entirely around the Abu Hammad family from the village. The family has 13 representatives in the senior squad, including three pairs of fathers and sons. Along with Ashraf, Taraji have brought fine achievements to the village: two Yasser Arafat Cups, two Palestinian Cups and two championships. During the last title-winning season, 2013/14, Ashraf, nicknamed "Al-Fanan" (The Artist), netted 12 goals in 20 games. After that season, Taraji became the first Palestinian team to participate in the AFC Cup, the Asian equivalent of the UEFA Europa League.
In 2012, Nu'man moved to Jordan to play for Al-Faisaly, Amman’s luxurious club, which is affiliated with Jordanians of Palestinian origin. Nu'man scored nine goals and assisted another six in 13 games, which helped the club reach the AFC Cup group stage. After half a season, he returned to Wadi Nis, helped win the club’s second championship and was the 'man of the moment' at the AFC Challenge Cup, scoring decisive goals for Palestine’s national team.
A spectacular free kick goal in the final against the Philippines ensured that Al-Fida’i qualified for the Asian Cup, which they attended for the first time in 2015, in Australia. From there, Nu'man went to another Al- Faisaly, this time, a Saudi one.
Nu'man arrived at the club in Haram City as a massive regional football star, which earned him a lucrative contract of about $200,000 per season. Nu'man did not disappoint his new employers. He finished as the club’s top scorer and provider of assists. He was a ‘Classic No. 10’ and had complete freedom on the pitch, but got injured a few times throughout the season and struggled to maintain stability. When the season ended, Nu'man came second in the 'Player of the Year Award’ in Saudi Arabia and 42nd in the ‘Best Asian Footballers’ (By Four-Four-Two). He was listed ahead of big names such as Shinji Kagawa and Ashkan Dejagah. It was just then, when the real mess started.
In June, Palestine faced Saudi Arabia and Malaysia in World Cup and Asian Cup qualifying games. Nu'man claimed he was injured and declined to join the team. Jibril Rajoub intervened, and along with several other injured players, Nu'man arrived in order to be checked by the team’s doctor. The doctor said that Nu'man was healthy, but the player refused to accept his opinion and demanded to rest. A few fans criticised him and the disciplinary committee of the Palestinian Association punished him with a probationary six-month ban. While the team lost to the Saudis and smashed the Malaysians, Nu'man mainly kept quiet. His contract at Al-Faisaly was terminated, as the club couldn’t meet the costs, and offers, rumours and phone calls began to bother his mind.
First, it was announced that he was a candidate to strengthen Al-Wehdat, another Jordanian mega-club from Amman and the bitter arch-rival of Al-Faisaly, his former team. Al-Wehdat represents the largest Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Amman of the same name. The team is considered as one of the prominent symbols of the Palestinian struggle and the refugees’ issue, in Jordan in particular, and in the Arab world in general. Al-Faisaly fans were irritated, but the pressure from Al-Wehdat’ supporters for Nu'man to join the club, had only just begun. A few days later, a report claimed Nu'man was considering a proposal from Hebron, where Ahli Khalil’s manager Stefano Cusin was strengthening the squad with the best available Palestinian players and an impressive array of Arab-Israeli players. On the same day, another report came out and contradicted the other two. Shabab al-Khalil, the largest club in Hebron, offered Nu'man $400,000 a season, which he accepted. If that's not enough, an old photo of the player wearing a Shabab shirt was published, and the internet went crazy from the West Bank to Amman. On Facebook, Twitter, fan forums and websites, millions of tweets and posts contained two words: Ashraf Nu'man. Al-Wehdat’s fans did not understand why the ‘Artist’ was escaping; Ahli Khalil’s people did not know why their city rivals had leaked the story and wondered whether it was worth paying such a sum for a player, when the fans earn a few hundred ILS a week; Shabab fans only inflamed the mood, and celebrated the signing of the star to their ranks; and even Nu’man’s friends from Taraji Wad al-Nis intervened, and denied all reports, in an effort to protect him and to restore a calm environment around the big star of the village, who found himself in a 'tornado' of rumours.
After two days of discussions and arguments on social media, without any reaction from Nu’man, a new report came out. Saudi club Najran wanted to sign Nu'man. A day went by, and in Egypt, a newspaper stated that the Palestinian star was signing for local club Ismaily, whose coach is Ahmed Hossam 'Mido', the controversial striker who played for Ajax, Marseille and Roma. The Egyptian team had two summer signings from the Palestinian market and the report aimed to tie Nu’man to a deal. The day after, it was reported that he was close to signing for the Bahraini club, Al-Muharraq, and there were claims that this was the player’s way to negotiate and to increase his price. The turnaround came when Al-Wehdat’s president, Tareq Khoury, tweeted that the player would sign for the Jordanian club after the end of the Ramadan fast. The Wehdati fans went crazy and were spreading photos of Nu'man wearing the club’s shirt. Khouri’s tweet gained a huge number of shares, and in the evening, there was further proof of the switch: a video of Ashraf Nu'man at his home in Wadi Nis, where he spoke for the first time since the beginning of the saga and gave his word to Al-Wehdat’s fans, wished them a happy holiday and assured them he was on his way to them, and that after Eid al-Fiter, he would sign officially.
Was that the end of story? Hell no! Taraji Wad al-Nis now entered the picture. After a difficult season in which the club finished in fifth place, it plunged into an economic crisis and is currently undergoing a clearance of its stars and significant players. During the Ramadan fast, Ashraf mostly stayed in the village, and he felt an obligation to his boyhood club, in its hour of need. In addition, he felt obliged to the people of his village, which see him as the local superhero. Reports about his return to Wadi Nis in order to save Taraji from a difficult season, began to circulate. A photo of him practicing at the village training ground (an asphalt pitch, in case you were wondering), even increased the perception that the guy just prefers to stay at home. At this point, Al-Wehdat fans woke up again, only this time they were outraged. How come the player is going to disappear again, after he gave them his word?
After 48 hours, Ashraf Nu'man finally announced, in his first and only post during this saga, that for the coming season he was going to wear the red and green of Al-Wehdat. The celebrations, integrated into the end of fast festivities, were exceptional. At the Allenby border crossing, thousands of fans were waiting for him, and cameramen were filming his every move. The player himself explained to the fans that the U-turn he made in favour of Wad al-Nis, was in part due to his great feelings for his village, but now he is proud and excited to be a Wehdati.
The transfer saga of Ashraf Nu'man touched and excited the people of both the west and east banks, throughout the month of Ramadan. It gave us a glimpse of a mega transfer that shocked the market in the Arab football world. Moreover, Ashraf Nu'man’s story shows us that at the core of each transfer of this or that player, there are lot of lies, inventions and exaggerations, but in the middle there’s a young man, with many pairs of eyes on him, with a lot of pressure on his shoulders and considerations such as family, friends and money collide and come at the expense of the other. He has to decide and determine, while in the background, agents and advisors give him conflicting advice.
Ashraf Nu'man thought he was going return home, to try and help Taraji Wad al-Nis and be the 'messiah' of his village, but his signature at Al-Wehdat, after a well-publicised and messy transfer saga, made him a Palestinian sport icon, who will be engraved on the collective memory as a superstar and an ‘Artist’, on both banks of the Jordan River.