Reports have swirled across social media over the past few hours claiming that Brazilian Malcom has obtained Emirati citizenship and joined the national team for the "Gulf Cup 27" tournament, which begins tomorrow in Saudi Arabia.
The UAE find themselves in Group Two, alongside Qatar, Bahrain and Yemen.
Emirati club Al-Jazira signed Malcom from Al-Hilal last August, ending a distinguished spell with the Saudi side.
Zlatko Dalic, the head coach of the UAE, named a 26-man squad for the Gulf Cup finals a few days ago. Yet reports over the past few hours have suggested Malcom was added to it.
Those reports are false. The Emirati Football Association has announced no naturalisation of Malcom, who has represented Brazil's national teams up to Olympic level.
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Neither the player himself nor his club have announced any such move, nor his participation in the tournament in the first place.
Visit the website of the Emirati Football Association and you'll find a report published today on the national team's arrival in Saudi Arabia under the headline: "Our national team's delegation arrives in Jeddah to take part in Gulf Cup 27". It makes no reference to any change to the squad.
For the record, the UAE squad for Gulf Cup 27 was as follows:
Goalkeepers: Fahad Al-Dhanhani, Khalid Eisa, Hamad Al-Muqbali.
Defence: Ruben Felipe, Lucas Pimenta, Khalifa Al-Hammadi, Marcus Meloni, Alaaeldin Zuhair, Eric Menzies, Khalid Al-Dhanhani, Zayed Al-Ameri, Sasa Ivkovic.
Midfield: Fabio Lima, Essam Fayez, Luan Pereira, Harib Abdalla, Nicolas Gimenez, Abdalla Hamad, Mamadou Coulibaly.
Attack: Othman Camara, Ali Saleh, Bala Guiliram, Richard Aconor, Bruno Oliveira, Yuri Cesar, Sultan Adil.