Soufiane Rahimi Breaks Al Ain Scoring Record Against Al Nassr
Soufiane Rahimi stepped out of Asamoah Gyan’s shadow in the most emphatic way possible – by tearing apart a Saudi giant and rewriting Al Ain history in the same night.
On a charged evening at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, the Moroccan forward struck in a 4-0 demolition of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr in the AFC Champions League Elite opener, a goal that carried more weight than the scoreline suggested. It was his 19th for Al Ain in Asian club competitions, nudging him past Gyan and Omar Abdulrahman and into outright first place on the club’s all-time continental scoring chart.
Rahimi leaves legends behind
Rahimi started the night locked on 18 Asian goals, level with two of the most iconic names to wear Al Ain colours. Gyan, the Ghanaian powerhouse who lit up the UAE during a prolific spell, and Abdulrahman, the club’s homegrown maestro, had long shared the benchmark.
One strike changed the hierarchy.
His goal against Al Nassr pushed him to 19, giving him sole ownership of a record that had stood as a measuring stick for every Al Ain attacker who followed Gyan’s era. With the former Ghana captain now retired and Abdulrahman no longer in the squad, the mantle at continental level belongs squarely to Rahimi.
The numbers are simple. The significance is not. Rahimi’s tally now sits above two players who helped define Al Ain’s modern identity in Asia, a sign of how central he has become to the Emirati club’s ambitions beyond domestic borders.
The new reference point
This is not a sudden rise. Over recent seasons, the Moroccan international has grown into Al Ain’s driving force in Asian competition, delivering goals and big-game performances as the club reasserts itself on the continental stage.
He played a key role in the run that ended with Al Ain lifting the AFC Champions League in the 2023/24 season. Now, in the new-look AFC Champions League Elite, he has started the campaign by breaking a record and dismantling one of the tournament’s most high-profile sides.
The 4-0 scoreline against Al Nassr did more than open Group play with a statement. It underlined that Al Ain remain a serious contender, with Rahimi at the heart of their threat. Every match from here gives him another chance to stretch the gap at the top of the club’s Asian scoring charts, turning a fresh record into a potentially unreachable one.
Gyan’s haul had long symbolised Al Ain’s continental ceiling, a reminder of the days when the Ghanaian led the line and dragged defences around the region. Rahimi’s 19th felt like a passing of the torch – not from one position to another, but from one era to the next.
The question now is no longer whether he can catch the legends. It’s how far ahead of them he intends to finish.
