Coach Felix Sanchez yesterday announced a 28-member Qatar squad for the Copa America to be held in Brazil from June 14 to July 7.
The list includes all players who represented Qatar during their historic Asian Cup triumph in the UAE earlier this year, most notably Karim Boudiaf and Bassam al-Rawi, who had missed their recent club matches due to injuries.
Al Duhail’s Ismail Mohamed, who missed the entire season due to injury and Al Gharafa’s Mahdi Ali have been also included in the squad which will be holding a training camp in Texas before flying out to Brazil.
A large number of players in the squad are from Al Sadd and Al Duhail, the top sides in Qatar. However, not a single player from Al Rayyan, who finished fourth in the QNB Stars League, has made the team.
The squad will be pruned to 23 after Qatar’s friendly against Brazil at the historic Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on June 5. They will also play a closed doors match against a Brazilian club side on June 9 before their first Copa America match against Paraguay on June 16.
They meet their other Group B rivals Colombia on June 20 and Argentina on June 23.
SQUAD: Saad al-Sheeb, Tariq Salman, Boualem Khoukhi, Hassan al-Haydos, Akram Afif, Hamid Ismail, Salem al-Hajri, Abdelkarim Hassan and Pedro ( Al Sadd); Almoez Ali, Bassam al- Rawi, Karim Boudiaf, Aasim Madibo, Ali Afif, Ismail Mohamed, Abdulla Abdul Salam and Sultan al-Brake (Al Duhail); Youssef Hassan, Abdulaziz Hatem, Ahmed Alaa, Tamim al-Muhaize and Mahdi Ali (Al Gharafa); Musab al-Khater and Ahmed Fathi (Al Arabi); Mohamed Bakri (Al Khor), Abdul Aziz al-Ansari (Al Kharaitiyat), Ahmed Moin (Qatar Sports Club) and Abdulrahman Mohamed (Al Ahli)
Qatar coach Felix Sanchez.
