Qatar squad for AFC U-23 Cup announced

Portuguese Ilidio Vale, coach of the Qatar Olympics team, on Friday named 24 players for the U-23 AFC Asian Cup to be hosted by Qatar from April 15-May 3, 2024.The three-week tournament is qualifying event for the football competition at the 2024 Olympic Games to be held in Paris later this summer.The draw for the tournament resulted in the Qatari team being at the top of the Group A alongside Australia, Jordan and Indonesia. Group B includes Japan, South Korea, the UAE and China.The Saudi national team, the defending champions, are in Group C along with Iraq, Thailand and Tajikistan while Group D has Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Kuwait and Malaysia.The teams that finish in the first three places in the AFC U-23 Cup Qatar 2024 qualify directly for the football competition at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris while the team that finishes in fourth place goes into a global play-off against the fourth-placed team in the finals of the U-23 Africa Cup. Qatar coach Vale took over the charge of Al Annabi last August.A vastly experienced coach, Vale, won a total of 27 titles with junior squads at Portuguese giants FC Porto.He has also served as assistant coach of the main squad. He also managed FC Porto B, the reserve team of Porto, between 2000 and 2004.In 2006, he joined the Portuguese Football Federation, where he played a key role with numerous national during one of the Iberian nation’s most successful eras.Qatar squad:Amir Hassan (Al Arabi), Ali Nader (Al Khor), and Youssef Abdullah (Al Sadd ), Abdullah al-Ali, Ahmed al-Rawi, Nayef al-Hadrami, Tamim Mansour Muftah (Al Rayyan), Jassim Jaber (Al Arabi ), Abdullah al-Yazidi, and Mustafa Tariq (Al Sadd). Abdullah Youssef and Saif al-Din Fadlallah (Al Gharafa), Fares Saeed and Lotfi Majer (Al Duhail), Khaled Ali and Nabil Arfan (Al Wakrah), Jassim al-Sharshani, Issa al-Najjar, and Mohamed Ayyash (Al Ahli ), Mahdi Salem (Al Shamal), Mohamed Mannai (Al Markhiya), Mohamed Khaled, Al-Hashemi al-Hussein, and Mubarak Shanan (Calhora, Spain).Coach: Ilidio Vale.