Soufiane Rahimi Surpasses Gyan as Al Ain's Leading Scorer in Asia
Soufiane Rahimi stepped out of Asamoah Gyan’s shadow in ruthless style, and he did it on a night when the whole of Asia was watching.
At the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, under the lights and with Cristiano Ronaldo on the opposing side, the Moroccan forward wrote his own line in Al Ain’s history books, striking in a 4-0 demolition of Al Nassr to become the club’s outright leading scorer in Asian competition.
Rahimi passes Gyan on the big stage
Rahimi started the AFC Champions League Elite opener locked on 18 continental goals for Al Ain, level with two giants of the club’s modern era: Asamoah Gyan and Omar Abdulrahman.
One clean finish changed everything.
His goal against Al Nassr pushed him to 19, lifting him clear of the Ghanaian icon and the Emirati playmaker and handing him sole ownership of a record that had long belonged to Gyan. For years, the former Ghana captain’s tally stood as the standard for Al Ain’s ambitions in Asia, a reminder of his explosive spell in the UAE and his status as one of the league’s most feared forwards.
Now the benchmark carries a different name: Soufiane Rahimi.
At 30, the Moroccan has moved past two of the club’s most celebrated figures on the continental stage. Gyan is retired, Abdulrahman has moved on, and Rahimi stands alone at the top of the list.
The new face of Al Ain in Asia
This was not a one-off moment. Rahimi’s influence has been growing season by season, his goals and performances increasingly tied to Al Ain’s fortunes beyond domestic borders.
He was central to the club’s run to the AFC Champions League title in the 2023/24 campaign. Now, as Al Ain launch into the new AFC Champions League Elite season with a statement 4-0 win over Ronaldo’s Al Nassr, Rahimi looks less like a supporting act and more like the man driving their continental charge.
The scale of the victory over the Saudi side underlined that Al Ain are not just defending champions passing through the group stage. They look like contenders again. And every time Rahimi pulls away from his marker or drifts into the box, that record of 19 feels like the start of a chase, not the end of one.
For years, Gyan’s name framed every discussion about Al Ain’s greatest European or Asian nights. Now, the conversation shifts. How far can Rahimi push this record? And how much further can he carry Al Ain in Asia while he’s doing it?
Gyan still in the numbers – in a different way
Gyan’s name, of course, continues to surface in another statistical corner of the game.
Elsewhere, Lionel Messi has moved past the Ghanaian in an unwanted World Cup category. Data from Opta Analyst shows Messi has taken seven penalties at World Cups and missed 42.86% of them, a rate that edges him beyond Gyan’s tally of failed attempts on the biggest international stage.
Different arenas, different storylines. Yet on this night in Al Ain, it was Rahimi who stepped into the record books, leaving a club legend behind and opening up a new race of his own.
