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The Qatar team winning the AFC U19 championship for the first time was a proud moment for Aspire Academy since all the 23 players were part of the training program that the Academy is currently undertaking for kids. And to see those kids blossom into stars is a huge sense of achievement. This is, however, only the beginning of things said Aspire Zone CEO Khalid al-Sulaiteen who was present yesterday to welcome the victorious boys as they landed back in Doha. |
“This is the start of what we are looking forward to doing in the future,” said al-Sulaiteen yesterday at the Ministerial Lounge of the Hamad International Airport.
The Qatar team had an unbeaten run to the trophy, won individual awards and that makes for a great future said al-Sulaiteen. “With this win, the expectations have increased. We won five out of six games. We scored 14 goals and our boys won the individual awards. All these statistics are a proud indication of the great team that we have. We need to support them and provide them with all possible facilities in preparation for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand.”
“To be honest, we were not expecting to win but now we need to encourage the kids even more,” he added.
The Aspire School principal Jassim Yacoub al-Jabir, who was also part of the welcoming committee yesterday, was happy with the success achieved by his students and said that it would inspire the rest of the school. “These students have already arrived on the world football scene. They have achieved success. We have around 110 footballers in the 12-18 age group. And now these kids want to be like Akram Afif and the others from this winning team. Afif and the rest of this champion team have become role models for the rest,” said al-Jabir yesterday.
Qatar is known for its excellent football infrastructure and now this on-the-pitch performance shows that a great team is building up. “We are very happy, very proud and the statistics are very encouraging. We can tell the world that it’s not just football infrastructure or the training programs that we are good at. We also now have the players that are really good,” said Aspire CEO al-Sulaiteen.
“With the Aspire Academy having started ten years ago, this result is a great feather in its cap. We have been waiting for something like this for a very long time. These kids are the dream of Qatar 2022. This is a result of 10 years of hard work. The Aspire Academy began 10 years ago,” said al-Sulaiteen.
The Aspire Zone CEO also pointed out that the European experience that these kids had got through the Aspire programs had helped during this tournament. “The Europe experience has definitely helped the kids. In the match against China, for example, most of the match saw heavy rain but the team managed to score in those conditions. And that was possible only because the kids were exposed to these kinds of playing conditions in Europe.”
The Aspire CEO also said that now the parents will be more willing to send their kids to the Academy. “Earlier the people were hesitant to send their kids to the Academy but after seeing how we train their kids and the routine that we follow, they are impressed. And with this result, we believe even more parents will want to send their children to the Academy.”
Aspire School principal al-Jabir also thanked the parents of these players who have also played a huge role in this success. “We have kids who are participating in club programs in Europe and they are doing that without the support of their parents. We try and do our best to support these kids and guide them. We want to especially thank the parents of these boys who have been willing to let their kids stay away from family. The parents have also showed ambition,” said al-Jabir yesterday.
“We are proud of this result. It is coming after a lot of effort,” he added.
A proud moment for all of Qatar indeed.
