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Mason: never give up |
A former Doha student has returned to Qatar, taking a break from his football training with Blackburn Rovers in Britain to visit family and play some football with some of Doha’s youngsters.
In an interview with Gulf Times, Niall Mason, 14, said that his frustration of trying to train at an advanced level in Qatar played a big part in his drive to succeed in his sport.
“It’s hard – there’s not much football here – I just kept working hard and stuck at it because I love my sport. You just got to keep working hard and never give up, that’s what I’ve taken from here, because it was hard here,” said Mason.
Mason trained with Al Sadd for several years, but felt that he had to move on in order to improve.
“It was good, but I couldn’t get any games with them because I’m not Qatari. I could only train, that’s all they’d let me do,” Mason explained.
He is concerned that other youths trying to play professional football might have the same problems as he did.
Mason completed four years at Doha British School before starting at Blackburn Rovers training academy at the end of 2009.
As well as at Al Sadd, Mason has also trained at Real Madrid Academy and at Aspire.
In his age group’s division he recently played as captain of Blackburn Rovers’ under 15’s against Aston Villa, Burnley, and also scored a hat-trick playing against New Zealand.
His team will play Manchester United in a month, which he thinks will be challenge but fancies their odds as the Blackburn youth squad are showing a strong performance in their league.