08 Jan 2017
Doha, 8 January 2017. Aspire Zone Foundation owned football team, KAS Eupen begun their winter training camp at Aspire Academy on Sunday 8 January. KAS Eupen currently plays in the Belgian Pro League after winning promotion from the 2nd league last season. Among the KAS Eupen squad that are on a week-long training camp are four (4) Qatari players who are also graduate students of Aspire Academy, Fahad Shnain , Monqeth Adi, Mohamed Al Bakry and Bassam Hisham. The team that head coach Jordi Auli Condom has brought to Qatar also boasts twelve (12) former Aspire Football Dreams players of whom eight (8) are still teenagers.
KAS Eupen begin their training camp on a high after reaching the semi-final of the Belgian Cup for the first time in the club history. The team plays the Belgian Cup on 18th January just after returning from Aspire training camp. Chief Advisor International Football Affairs Aspire Zone Foundation and KAS Eupen FC board member, Andreas Bleicher waxed lyrical about the training camp, “It’s fantastic that KAS Eupen are able to hold a winter training camp here at Aspire, where the pitches are great, weather lovely and conditions just wonderful and with friendly matches lined up against, FC Bayern Munich and Shanghai SIPG FC big football teams and really you can’t have it better than that for a training camp.”
KAS Eupen Director General, Christoph Henkel, added that they found that there is a big difference between the Pro League and 2nd division where they played last year, “The speed and pace of the matches in the Belgian Pro League is much higher. The teams in the top league are physically strong. Our goal in this first season in the Belgian Pro League is to stay in this league, it’s the only and important goal and we have to fight for every point. So this training camp and preparation time here at Aspire Academy is that crucial for us.”
As part of the training camp KAS Eupen will engage Germany giants, FC Bayern Munich in a friendly match at Aspire Academy on Tuesday 10th January evening before playing against Shanghai SIPG FC two days later on 12th January also at Aspire Academy.