{"id":350322,"date":"2026-01-03T17:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/350322\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T17:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:52:08","slug":"norwich-city-interest-in-vancouver-whitecaps-ali-ahmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/350322\/","title":{"rendered":"Norwich City interest in Vancouver Whitecaps&#8217; Ali Ahmed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  The Canaries are working on a deal to explore the prospect of adding the 25-year-old to Philippe Clement&#8217;s squad this month, along with other potential wide targets.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A deal is yet to be agreed, but Norwich have watched Ahmed&#8217;s performances in the MLS for a prolonged period and are in the market for attacking reinforcements as they bid to improve their standing in the Championship.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Ahmed, who has been capped 22 times by Canada, recorded 11 assists and two goals for Vancouver in their MLS campaign, which ended with a 3-1 defeat to Lionel Messi&#8217;s Inter Miami in the final last month. He has played over 100 times as a left winger but is also capable of playing at left back and in a more central role.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  His development in the last two years has seen him lauded in MLS circles and earn the trust of national team boss Jesse Marsch, who praised his footballing intelligence and running power in an interview back in October.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI would argue that Ali understands how we play better than anyone on the entire team, tactically and intellectually,&#8221; Marsch told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/sports\/soccer\/ali-ahmed-canada-soccer-chris-jones-9.6931998?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CBC Sports<\/a>. \u201cI value Ali as a player maybe more than any coach he\u2019s ever had, because he understands exactly what I need from players who play in his spot.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Ali makes mistakes like everyone else, but in terms of his pure understanding of what\u2019s necessary at any moment, he\u2019s almost perfect. And he can run for days.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Earlier this week, Clement mapped out their January hopes &#8211; explaining that injecting some more creativity in their group as a priority.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;I&#8217;m not going to go into detail\u00a0about positions\u00a0because I don&#8217;t want to put the people\u00a0in the club with their back\u00a0against the wall,&#8221; Clement said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>Philippe Clement is hoping for creative reinforcements in the January transfer window. (Image: Paul Chesterton\/Focus Images Ltd)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;Then you push them about those positions\u00a0until the 31st of January,\u00a0but it&#8217;s clear that we need\u00a0to gain creativity\u00a0in the final third.\u00a0That&#8217;s what we saw also\u00a0in this last game.\u00a0We need to strengthen there\u00a0and everybody is aligned around that.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;For me, it&#8217;s about quality.\u00a0So, I prefer somebody who&#8217;s 12 years old but is an incredible player, and of course I&#8217;m exaggerating now, over somebody who&#8217;s 37 and did everything in the game, but he&#8217;s not fit anymore, and he cannot do it anymore.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;It&#8217;s about quality.\u00a0Of course, if you can add quality\u00a0and leadership\u00a0and you can do both\u00a0it&#8217;s always better\u00a0but I know also\u00a0it&#8217;s a January window is a difficult window because there&#8217;s not one club\u00a0in the world\u00a0who wants to lose\u00a0their best players\u00a0or players who played\u00a0a lot of games.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;We will see.\u00a0It&#8217;s about quality\u00a0and getting the right quality.\u00a0That&#8217;s the major thing.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canaries are working on a deal to explore the prospect of adding the 25-year-old to Philippe Clement&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-350322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}