Caio Caneda received the "report" on August 3, after more than 17 days of quarantine. The 30-year-old Brazilian striker has just become a UAE citizen, alongside sebatian Tagliabue (Aregentina) and Fabio de Lima (Brazil). All three naturalized players were called up by new UAE coach Jorge Luis Pinto to prepare for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
With a positive result, striker Caio Caneda will not be with the UAE team to Serbia for training from August 5 to 23. In this second training session, coach Luis Pinto called up 28 players. In addition to Caneda, 3 other players cannot go to Europe due to injury.
Striker Caio Caneda was born in 1990 in Brazil and has played for a number of famous clubs in South America such as Botafogo and Sao Paulo. In 2015, he joined Al Wasl club in the UAE professional league, playing 66 matches and scoring 37 goals.
Caneda and 2 other naturalized players are expected to "revive" the UAE national team's attack. After 4 matches in Group G, the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, UAE ranked 4th with 6 points, 5 points behind the leader Vietnam.
According to the schedule, the UAE team has 4 more qualifying matches and will play 3 home matches against Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. In addition, the West Asian team has 1 away match of the team that was eliminated from Indonesia. The UAE's goal is to win all 4 matches, take the top spot in Vietnam and get a ticket to the next round.
