Fiorentina FC signing Kuwaiti goalkeeper Ibrahim Al-Faresi

"KUWAIT (KUNA): General Manager of the Italian football club Fiorentina Sandro Mencucci will hold a press conference tomorrow, Sunday, to announce the signing of a transition contract of Kuwaiti goalkeeper Ibrahim Al-Faresi to the team. Fiorentina was ranked fourth in the Italian League for Professional Football (Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico) last season. The Italian delegation will arrive this evening, accompanied by Al-Faresi's sport agent to seal the deal. Should the contract is signed; Al-Faresi would be the first Kuwaiti player in the stars-studded and widely-observed Italian League."

I'm surprised. Not that I doubt we have talents in the country but the fact that Ibrahim Al-Faresi doesn't play for a local team. I guess ramadan tournaments have better future for players than our retarded league. We better wish him luck.

- Some quick stats about Ibrahim Alfaresi [link]

UPDATE: Just got this over email...

Quote: "A young Kuwaiti football player called Ibrahim Al Faresi got signed to a top Italian football team, the problem is no one had heard of him before. So who exactly is Ibrahim Al Faresi?

A couple of years ago Ibrahim was playing football with his friends in front of the Bulgarian embassy here in Kuwait when an employee at the embassy took notice of Ibrahim and told him he should go play football in the Bulgarian league. He offered to help him and hook him up with the right people so Ibrahim decided to take the chance and traveled to Bulgaria where he tried out for a football team and ended up joining them.

After awhile Ibrahim realized he wanted more and so went to the FIFA website and sent an email to a licensed agent so he would be able to travel and play in any club without issues. His new agent took him to England first where he was going to get signed to Crystal Palace F.C. But due to the fact that if you want to play in the English Premiership you need to have a work permit and also need to have played in your countries league at one point, Ibrahim couldn't join them.

His agent then took him to try out at A.C. Siena in Italy. While there a very famous goalkeeper scout called Senior Silvano who had previously discovered the worlds best goalkeeper Gianluigi 'Gigi' Buffon told him not to sign up with A.C. Siena and instead offered to have him trained more so he could get him signed up in a better team. Ibrahim accepted and went and trained under the guidance of Senior. After a short period Senior took him to try out for A.C. Milan and ACF Fiorentina. Fiorentina where right away impressed and instantly offered him a spot on their team.

And thats basically the story of Ibrahim. In a weeks time he is leaving Kuwait and heading to Italy for some medical test and some more training before officially signing for the club. Its a great story and it just goes to show that there are a lot of untapped talents here in Kuwait. I've always believed that there are some amazing football players here in Kuwait but I think the football league here is just not as strong as it used to be to draw in these talents. Hopefully this story will prove to be an eyeopener."