Thu, 12 Nov 2009 5:46p.m.
By Dan Parker
Bahrain's football team has just arrived at Wellington Airport for Saturday's World Cup qualifier against the All Whites.
Fittingly for representatives of an oil-rich Gulf state, they came in their own chartered jet.
It is one of the biggest aircraft to land at Wellington, and the Gulf Air A340 carried players who bring with them the hopes of a nation.
Former captain Abdul Razzak Mohamed has been carefully planning the Bahrainis' visit. After 12 years playing for his country, Mohamed is a household name at home, but says he's enjoying the anonymity of being down under.
"In Bahrain, the Gulf and in Asia, everybody knows me there," he says.
Bahrain is a small island located in the Persian Gulf with a total population of around 670,000.
It is smaller than New Zealand in many ways, and despite football being the national sport it has 290 fewer clubs than here. Bahrain also has one-tenth the players, and started playing officially 20 years after New Zealand.
In 2006 Bahrain came agonisingly close to reaching their first World Cup. They were denied in their last game, and Mohamed says the players won't make the same mistakes again.
"To reach to this stage for Bahrain, this is like a dream," he says.
But before that can happen, the Bahrain team face 90 minutes of football away from home against an equally-hungry opposition.
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