02 Feb 2026
Aspire Academy’s under-17 football coach Alvaro Mejia believes this squad can take a lot of positive lessons from their 4th-place finish at the Alkass International Cup.
In their final match at the tournament, hosts Aspire Academy lost out 4-5 on penalties, this time to Morocco’s Mohammed VI Football Academy after the match had ended deadlocked at 1-1.
The win for the Moroccans secured third place at the prestigious event organised by Alkass Sports Channels.
Spain’s Barcelona won the tournament overall thanks to a comfortable 5-2 win over France’s Paris Saint-Germain in the final.
Mohammed VI’s win in the third-place match was a measure of revenge after Aspire Academy won the group game between the two sides 1-0.
The Moroccans took the lead in the play-off in injury time at the end of the first half through Adam Mimouni and looked on course to win, until Adham Adnan grabbed an equaliser in the final seconds of the match.
In the penalty shootout, both teams had two saved from their first five, sending the shootout to sudden death before Aspire Academy’s sixth was saved, allowing Nadir Bakkali to score the decisive spot kick for Mohammed VI.
Aspire Academy’s under-17 coach, Alvaro Mejia, said that his team will take a lot of important insights from the tournament.
“We must be proud that we didn’t lose a game; we had a perfect group stage, winning all three games. With good performances that improved throughout,” he said.
“I think overall we have to be happy with the performance and with the players. This is an experience the players will take as positive, with this kind of exposure and the chance to play with great teams and academies.”
“We can take this experience to help us improve in the future, to get used to this kind of situation because it's going to get more and more difficult.”
He was also full of praise for his players for playing five matches in just 10 days.
“The boys put in a lot of effort; it’s really not easy to play every two days. We managed to get to the end with no major injuries, which is very good. On the mental side, it helps that the players all want to play in this tournament and against these kinds of teams - so they put the best of themselves into the games.
“We spent a lot of time on the recovery part after every game and taking care of them so that they can put in their best performance in the best condition in the next game.”
Aspire Academy defender Taha Nassir echoed his coach’s sentiments on his side’s performance.
“We competed very well against teams that we thought we would have a hard time against, and overall it was a very good learning experience,” he explained.
“To get nine points from nine in the group stage is not easy; we were the only ones to achieve that.”
He added that participating in such events gave the team the opportunity to identify areas for improvement.
“Going forward, we will learn how to play our best football even in high-pressure situations,” the defender said.
“In those moments when we are struggling, we need to adapt to the situation. If we feel like we can't move the ball from side to side like we usually do, we need to be able to defend more aggressively.”
“It's not easy playing so many games in a short space of time, but we have staff here who help us to recover physically, mentally and nutrition-wise.”
“So I'm very thankful to the staff who help us. It's very hard, hard to keep up with the intensity, but I hope we can continue, and in the future we can cope even better, such as at the (Under-17) World Cup.”
Many players from the Alkass International Cup are striving to earn a place in the Qatar squad for the 2026 Under-17 World Cup, which is set to kick off in November and will once again be hosted at Aspire Academy.