I have been given the job of organizing coverage of the local professional soccer league, which is known at The National as the Pro League.

I am impressed by how many UAE nationals play in the league of 12 teams, considering the Emirati population is only around 1 million, which means perhaps 500,000 males and a fraction of those in the 19-to-30 range that is prime for soccer, and a smaller-yet group of them serious athletes.

Each of the 12 franchises can play only three foreign-passport holders at a time, so that means at least 15 Emiratis suit up for every game — or 180 every weekend. That’s a big number for such a small population base.

And perhaps explains why those three foreigners per team account for so many goals.

How many?

On the first weekend of play, 17 goals were scored and foreigners fired in nine of them. More than half, that is. Despite no more than three per team.

The preponderance of foreigners at goalscoring positions is not unique to the UAE. Major League Soccer, in the U.S., has lots of foreign players on the attacking end. Of its eight leading scorers this season, five were born outside the U.S. or Canada, including Juan Pablo Angel and Fredy Montero of Colombia, Sebastien Le Toux of France, Kei Kamara of Sierra Leone and Alvaro Saborio of Costa Rica.The all-time leading scorer in MLS is a Bolivian, Jaime Moreno.

On the day the season here opened, I did a story about the UAE’s foreign legion, and how 20 of the 35 foreigners in the league, at that moment, were forwards and another 11 were midfielders, most of the attacking variety.

Four were defenders. None were keepers.

The ability of soccer clubs around the world to find useful attacking players is really quite impressive.

Start with Brazil.  Where everyone’s search begins. A statistic floating around suggests that 5,000 Brazilians have played club soccer outside of Brazil is some recent (20 years?) time frame.

The UAE Pro League isn’t lacking for Brazilians, with 13. Three more players are from Argentina, including last year’s leading scorer,  Jose Sand.

But the league also scouts Africa; 12 of its foreigners come from that continent.

Anyway, if you wanted to win on the first weekend, it was advisable to have a foreigner score. Five of the six winners saw one of their imports put the ball in the net, led by Sand, who plays for Al Ain, with two goals and Marcelo Oliveira, a Brazilian who plays for Sharjah who also scored twice.
And the only losing team to score at all, Dubai, got all three of its goals from foreigners, two from Michael N’dri of France and the other from Rachid Tiberkanin of Morocco.

Thus, one week in, I’m thinking that the most important decisions every club in the Pro League makes are who it will spend its three expat roster spots on. Do it well, and you have a shot of winning. Get it wrong, and your season may be long.

That “pick the right foreigner” concept extends to coaches, too. Of the 12 in the league, only one, Abdullah al Mishtiki of Al Ain, in an Emirati.  The other 11 come from Brazil (five), Ireland, Switzerland, Tunisia, Portugal, Romania and Egypt.

It gives the UAE Pro League a very multinational feeling. Which reflects the country it plays in.