Khorfakkan U23

In the spring of 1994 the club then known as Al Khaleej did something it has not managed since.

The club had been founded in 1981 in Khor Fakkan. Its earliest honour actually predates that date on the books — a UAE Division One title in 1978–79 — and five more followed, in 1981–82, 1993–94, 2000–01, 2007–08 and 2018–19. Six second-tier championships is a particular kind of record: it means the club has gone up repeatedly, and come back down almost as often.

The last of them ended the longest of those absences. Winning Division One in 2018–19 returned the side to the UAE Pro League after 11 years away, and it did so under a name barely two years old — the club dropped Al Khaleej in June 2017 and took the name of the town instead.

Before any of the league titles came the closest brush with the country's main knockout competition. In 1986–87 the club reached the final of the UAE President's Cup and lost it. Cup football has its own rules, and that remains the furthest the Eagles have gone in it.

Home is the Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi Stadium, a modest ground by Pro League standards, where the side plays in green. White is kept for away days, black for the third choice.

The under-23 side works within that frame: the same colours, the same ground, and a first team whose history is largely a record of climbing back.