Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: Join the-afc.com as we look at Al Ittihad's Gelmin Rivas, one of the AFC Champions League 2016 key players, as the Group Stage comes nearer.
KEY PLAYER: GELMIN RIVAS – Al Ittihad
AFC Champions League Record
Appearances: 0
Goals: 0
PROFILE
Al Ittihad completed one of the Saudi Pro League’s most instantly impactful transfers in recent times with the signing of Venezuelan centre-forward Gelmin Rivas.
Scoring on his debut for the Jeddah giants to help the club secure a 2-1 away at Al Najran, the 26-year-old has not looked back since and currently tops the Saudi Pro League top scorer standings.
He already looks at home in the continental game, too, scoring a trademark towering header to draw the scores level against Jordan’s Al Wehdat in Al Ittihad’s 2-1 win in the AFC Champions League play-offs.
In their 2004 and 2005 AFC Champions League triumphs Al Ittihad had prolific strikers Hamzah Idris and Mohamed Kallon to fire them to continental glory, could they have found another now?
IMPORTANCE TO TEAM
Close-range finishes and headers made up the bulk of Gelmin Rivas’ goals for former club Deportivo Tachira with whom he won Venezuela’s Primer Division and his physical prowess has been much in evidence in the Saudi Pro League.
Boasting a cannon of a right foot, the South American striker is tall and powerful – a number 9 in the most classic sense.
ONES TO WATCH
Mukhtar Fallatah has been a prolific scorer for Al Ittihad since 2012 with much of his supply coming from flying Saudi Arabia wingers Fahad Al Muwallad, who is still only 21 having made his professional debut as a precocious 16-year-old, and Abdulfattah Asiri.