24 Oct 2014
Yangon, 23 October 2014: Following the successful qualification for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Championship by reaching the semi-final, Qatar’s youth national team – a mix of graduates and student-athletes of Aspire Academy - topped this achievement by claiming the AFC U-19 Championship title after a 1-0 victory over DPR Korea in Thursday`s final at Thuwunna Youth Training Centre Stadium in Myanmar.
The final was decided by a single goal scored by substitute Akram Afif, who was on target to give Qatar the lead after 50 minutes and ultimately end the Korean hopes of a fourth title, despite championship glory in two of the four previous tournaments. For Qatar, the result caps off an undefeated campaign in Myanmar with the historic victory resulting in their first AFC championship title since they lifted the AFC U-16 Championship trophy in 1990.
“I’m very happy for this incredible achievement, especially for the players who have shown a great attitude throughout and were a pleasure to work with during this whole tournament, We knew that it was a good opportunity for us to end this title drought and the players did everything to win this championship for themselves and for the country of Qatar,“ said Qatar`s U-19 coach Felix Sanchez Bas.
Two players of his team had a second reason to celebrate: Ahmed Moeen was named "Player of the Tournament“, his teammate Ahmed Al Sadi won the top scorer award.“It means a lot for Qatar to win this tournament. We worked hard for this success and I am proud that I was named the “Most Valuable Player“ of the championship, which would not have been possible without the help of my teammates. All of them showed great performances as well,” said Moeen.
The success of Qatar´s U-19 national team proves that the philosophy of Aspire Academy works. All 24 players of Qatar’s U-19 football national team in Myanmar have been with Aspire Academy, most of them have already graduated, while some are still student athletes at the Academy. As a matter of fact, the penetration of Aspire players in Qatari national teams has also increased this year to 100% also for the U-17 national team that also qualified for AFC Championship like the U-19. On senior level 18% of the players in Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2014 qualification squad were graduates from Aspire Academy, which is a remarkable output taking into account that Aspire Academy was established only in 2004.