Ittihad Kalba U23

A 5-1 win over Khorfakkan settled it in 2023/2024: Ittihad Kalba's reserve side took the UAE Pro League U21 title, the first honour of that kind for the club's development ranks. It arrived in the same season the team began playing under the newly formatted Pro League U23 banner, opening that campaign with a 2-2 draw against Al Nasr.

The reserve side draws its identity, and its yellow-and-black colours, from the first team in Kalba, a city in the emirate of Sharjah. Al Ittihad Kalba itself came together in 1972, when three local sides, Al Shabab, Al Ruba and Al Riyadiya, merged into one club. The nickname that followed, The Tigers, still runs through both the senior and reserve setups.

Home matches are played at the Ittihad Kalba Club Stadium on Sahafa Street, a ground whose listed capacity shifts depending on where you look, 6,000 by some counts, well over 7,000 by others, though 6,000 is the figure most commonly used. Kalba has no fixed rival to speak of; without a neighbouring Premier League club close by, the U23 side's fixtures against Sharjah emirate opponents such as Al Sharjah, or against Ajman from further along the coast, carry no fixed derby weight.

Ghazi Fahad took charge of the U21 side through that 2023/2024 title run. The promotion he earned from it was not the usual kind handed to a reserve-team coach: in March 2024, Kalba moved him up to manage the first team itself, taking the man who had built the crop of young players with him to senior level.