30 Jun 2014
For four students of Aspire Academy a dream came true: Their names were drawn at the recent graduation in June and so Yousef Saeed Al Badr, Mohammed Talib Afifa, Fahad Mohamad Alqesaimi and Hassan Juma Al- Ali got the chance to go to Brazil to experience the unique atmosphere of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Accompanied by teachers and coaches, the students got to see exciting games taking place in Rio de Janeiro, got to know a different culture and could see some of the world’s best football players such as Neymar (Brazil), Arturo Vidal (Chile), Karim Benzema (France), Eden Hazard (Belgium) or Antonio Valencia (Ecuador) competing for the round of 16. “It was an amazing experience being at the World Cup. Not just the games, but seeing so many people coming together for the sake of this beautiful game was really overwhelming,” student Yousef Saeed Al Badr commented on the recent trip to Rio.
Among the students of Aspire Academy heading to World Cup was also Peter Fritz Pflug from Germany, winner of the "Battle of the goalkeepers", a competition that was part of the "Goalkeeper Elite Training Summit" that brought the world's top 23 junior goalkeepers to Doha last December. “I am so happy that I could be in Brazil and I hope my home country Germany will keep up their good shape,” Pflug said.
In course of their trip to Brazil, the students and staff members of Aspire Academy were attending the games between France and Ecuador, Russia and Belgium, as well as the match between Brazil and Chile.