Al Ain return to the Club World Cup aiming to recreate their stunning 2018 run, when they reached the final as hosts. Drawn against European heavyweights Manchester City and Juventus, the Emirati giants will need another shock or two to make history again.
1) Who will Al Ain face at the Club World Cup?
Al Ain have been drawn into Group G and these are their group stage fixtures:
18 June: vs Juventus. Audi Field, Washington DC.
22 June: vs Manchester City. Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta.
26 June: vs Wydad Casablanca. Audi Field, Washington DC.
2) Domestic domination
Al Ain are the most-successful side in the history of the UAE Pro League, claiming 14 titles, nine of which have come in the 21st century. For context, Shabab Al Ahli boast the country's second-most league titles, having been crowned UAE Champions on nine occasions.
3) Asian titles
On top of this, Al Ain are the only club from the United Arab Emirates to become Asian champions. They won the AFC Champions League for the very first time in 2003, defeating BEC-Tero Sasana of Thailand.
They then repeated the feat 21 years later, this time upsetting the odds to defeat Japanese outfit Yokohama F. Marinos 6-3 on aggregate in the final little over 12 months ago. After a 2-1 defeat on the road, both Soufiane Rahimi and Kodjo Fo-Doh Laba bagged braces on an historic night back at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
4) A trophyless season
Given their past triumphs, this season was a massive failure for Al Ain. They finished fifth in the UAE Pro League, a whopping 19 points adrift the champions, and were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the President's Cup by local rivals Al Jazira.
Meantime as they attempted to retain their Champions League crown, Al Ain ignominiously finished rock-bottom of the west region league phase, yielding a miserly two points from eight fixtures, shipping five goals against both Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr.
5) Past Club World Cup expirence
Al Ain have only ever competed at one edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, but they certainly made an impression. Qualifying as host champions in 2018, they overcame Team Wellington on penalties, smashed Espérance Sportive de Tunis 3-0 and then caused a massive shock by dumping out River Plate following another shootout. This makes them one of only three Asian clubs to have contested a final, ultimately demolished 4-1 by Real Madrid.
As Asian champions, they also participated in last year's inaugural FIFA Intercontinental Cup, but this didn't go quite so well. They did demolished Auckland City 6-2 in the first round on home turf, but were subsequently smashed 3-0 by Al Ahly in Cairo at the quarter-final stage.
6) The origins of Al Ain's purple kits
After being founded in 1968, Al Ain initially wore green and white, before briefly donning red kits. However, back in 1977, they featured in a pre-season friendly tournament in Morocco, with Nice, Sporting Clube de Portugal, Wydad Casablanca and, crucially, Anderlecht also participating.
The legend goes that the Al Ain hierarchy were so impressed by the Belgian outfit that they decided to adopt their purple kits, given the colour's connotations to royalty and luxury.
7) Al Ain players to watch: Kaku
Paraguayan attacking midfielder Alejandro Sebastián Romero Gamarra, more commonly known as Kaku, is the dictionary definition of a maverick number ten if ever there has been one.
Now 30 years old, he played for Huracán in Argentina and New York Red Bulls in America, with whom he won an MLS Supporters' Shield, although he's mainly remembered for recklessly and aggressively kicking the ball into the crowd against Sporting Kansas City, which struck a fan in the front row, resulting in a three-match suspension.
He departed New Jersey soon after and, following three years with Al Taawoun in Saudi Arabia, he's found a home at Al Ain, scoring 20 goals in 23 appearances for the club, including crucial strikes in both the semi-final and final of their AFC Champions League triumph.
8) Al Ain players to watch: Kodjo Laba
While Kaku is the creator in chief, Kodjo Fo-Doh Laba is Al Ain's main man for goals. The 33-year-old arrived in Abu Dhabi in 2019 and, since then, has scored 140 goals in 180 appearances.
The Togolese attacker has picked up the UAE Pro League golden boot in three of the last five seasons, bagging 20 league goals this time round, thereby on target every 84 minutes on average.
Overall, Laba is Al Ain's second-highest goalscorer of all-time, surpassing Asamoah Gyan's tally earlier this year, currently 45 goals adrift Ahmed Abdullah's all-time record that has stood since 1995.
9) Manager Vladimir Ivić: a globetrotting career
When they won last season's AFC Champions League, Hernán Crespo was Al Ain manager, but he was sacked back in November.
His successor is Vladimir Ivić, with Al Ain the fifth club he has taken charge of in five countries. The 48 year old has previously been head coach of PAOK in Greece, Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel, across two spells, very briefly Watford in England's second-tier and then Russian outfit Krasnodar.
10) Al Ain: major underdogs to advance
Al Ain will face two European juggernauts, namely Manchester City and Juventus, this summer, before concluding their campaign against Wydad Casablanca in Washington, D.C. Thus, it is not unfair to say, that they are firm favourites to finish rock-bottom of Group G.