History was made when Arab-Israeli soccer player Dia Saba signed with Dubai’s Al-Nasr soccer club. As he leaves the Chinese club Guangzhou R&F to join the team from Dubai, 28-year-old Saba will be the first Israeli player to ever set foot on an Emirati soccer field. The deal was made possible largely by the normalization agreement signed this month between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Saba made his first breakthrough while playing for the Maccabee Netanya soccer club. He ended the season as the Israeli Super League’s top scorer with 24 goals. The achievement earned him a place on what was then Israel’s champion team, HaPoel Beersheba. Just a few months later, he was acquired by Guangzhou R&F for $5 million. After two years there, he left the club this week and signed with Al-Nasr Dubai.

“I just hope that I am not dreaming, and that all of a sudden, I will wake up,” he wrote in an Instagram post after signing with Al-Nasr. “People here are constantly saying that this is historic. Just moments after the peace agreement, the mood in the streets and in the club is warm and inviting.”

Saba's cousin Ahmad Saba was, like him, the top goal-scorer for Israel’s Super League in the 2011-2012 season, also playing for Maccabee Netanya. In a conversation with Al-Monitor, he said, “I think this is a wonderful and important step for Dia, for all of Arab society and especially for Arab football players in Israel, because it opened the door for them to join the Emirati league in the future. It really is an enormous achievement for Dia to become the first Arab-Israeli to sign with the Emirati league.”