25 Jan 2016
Doha, 25 January 2016. Last week, Aspire Academy hosted the latest Tri-Series tournament of the 2015 – 2016 season. Over three days, the Academy’s U-16, U-17 and U-18 teams encountered intense competition against teams from Turkish club Altinordu S.K., Chinese club Shanghai SIPG F.C., German club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and Czech football club SK Slavia Prague.
At the end of the tournament, Aspire Academy lifted the U-17s trophy, a team from Altinordu S.K. lifted the U-18s trophy and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim ran out winners in the U-16 trophy.
Ismail Alan, coach of the Altinordu U-18 team said: “Our thanks go to Aspire Academy for inviting us and organising an excellent tournament. We’re currently top of the table in the U18 championship in Turkey, and taking part provided a great opportunity to compare our standard of play with teams from China and Qatar. The facilities here are extraordinary and it’s great to see what Aspire Academy is doing to improve the development of young players.”
Marcel Rapp, coach of TSG Hoffenheim’s U-17 team said: “We came here with great expectations since we had heard and seen a lot about Aspire Academy in German media around the coverage of Bayern Munich’s recent training camp. Our visit exceeded everyone’s expectations. The environment here is just perfect. Coming here and playing two games in such a short period of time was tough and intensive, but our players will remember the experience for a long time to come.”
Jakub Fajfr, coach of Slavia Prague U-16s, said: “We really enjoyed our time here. Although we lost both games, it was still a very good and valuable experience. I was very impressed by the quality of the Academy team that beat us 6 – 1. They are obviously doing a really good job here, as the standard of play was high.”
During their stay in Qatar, the visiting teams stayed at the Torch and Grand Heritage Hotels. On the days when they were not competing in the tournament, the teams were given a tour of Doha and visited a number of the city’s best-known tourist attractions and important landmarks, learning about Qatari history and culture.