20 Dec 2017
Doha, 20 December 2017. Aspire Academy graduates, Ahmed Alaaeldin, Monkez Mohammed and Amro Abdelfatah Ali Surag helped their club side Al Gharafa to victory over Al Rayyan in the final of Qatar Stars League Cup on Tuesday night, 19 December 2017. Al Gharafa won 3-2 and Ali Surag and Alaaeldin, who had both been part of Aspire Academy's football program, scored in the first and second half respectively.
The vanquished Al Rayyan side also featured two graduates, Mohamed Alaaeldin and Aldoukali Side Al Baoure. It was Al Gharafa’s second QSL Cup win after claiming the inaugural title in 2009-10 season. Last year’s winners were El Jaish.
An elated Amro Abdelfatah Ali Surag said after final whistle, “It’s great to win the QSL Cup and we dedicate the win to all Al Gharafa fans. We are very happy and we work hard on taking this form into the second half of the season when the league competition resumes.” His teammate Monkez Mohammed added, “I hope this victory brings about a turn of fortunes for us and we mount a strong challenge in the league and finish as high up the table as possible. Winning builds confidence and positive outlook and we want to build on this fine QSL Cup win good start.”
The QSL takes a break until next month with a good number of Aspire graduates making up Qatar Senior National team that heads to Kuwait to play in the 23rd GULF Cup to run from Dec 22 till 5th January.