By Paul Nicholson
October 29 – When the Qatari national U19 team stepped off their plane to a red carpet and heroes’ welcome it marked a new level of football achievement for the Gulf state that is reinventing itself through sport. It also marked another step on the development path set by the Aspire Academy.
Qatar won the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U19 championship in Myanmar without losing a game – knocking over some giant nations, including China and Korea on the way.
Every player in the Qatari squad is a product of the Aspire Academy. It is perhaps now time for critics of the country and its system to look beyond the headlines and their prejudices – if just for a short while – and look at what is being achieved in football terms, on the pitch.
Talking at the Aspire Summit in Paris two weeks ago, Aspire Academy director general Ivan Bravo spoke of what he felt was a “shift in world football. New countries, leagues and clubs are hungry to work their way to the table.”
Certainly Qatar is one of those countries. Hosting the 2022 World Cup is not just a debate about winter or summer, or the politics of football globally, but also a discussion about how can a competitive football environment be built to best compete in a new football world.
The Aspire Summit was very much about the real world of football. A mix of best practice and next practice as the club delegates, all from the playing departments of the world’s leading clubs, shared experiences and knowledge.
“We are very proud that we got more than 50 of the world’s best clubs and national teams here (to the Aspire Summit) and that we are the ones moderating the debate and pushing the boundaries,” said Bravo.
The Aspire Academy project is now 10 years in the making. With the U19 AFC Championship win, the first time in Qatar’s football history, the academy has suddenly leapt from being a place with great facilities, to a place with great facilities and home-grown championship winning footballers. Psychologically the step up is huge.
“Qatar is breeding football, on the pitch as much as off the pitch. The country is hungry to build a brand in football through its local players and teams. This one, fully developed and managed for the QFA (Qatar Football Association) through Aspire, shows what can be done – and, importantly, with local players, for those skeptics out there who think Qatar would want to play with foreign, naturalized footballers,” said Bravo.
In Paris, Bravo said that “it is very possible that the (football) status quo is changing. It happens in any business, challenges are made to the establishment. I have been establishment (Bravo was director of strategy at Real Madrid before joining Aspire in 2008), but now I see questions being asked of the old order.
“The gaps between countries are closing, at youth level for sure. Ten years ago Qatar would struggle to keep up with the Europeans or the power houses in Asia, now anything can happen. You can win, lose or tie but everyone knows we are pushing to the next level. To put things in perspective, Qatar winning this championship could be equivalent to seeing Malta winning the European one,” said Bravo.
Getting to the point of being respected for your playing ability and not for the size of your wallet is the big step forward. But it has not come without the support of a big wallet. Something that even the captain of the Qatari U19 team, Ahmad Moein, recognised when he dedicated the team’s victory to the Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Moein won the player of the tournament in Myanmar and is one of a number of outstanding players that are coming through the Aspire system. Gems that have to be “identified, polished and cared for. This is a tremendous joint effort by the QFA and Aspire,” said Bravo.
It is a system that is embracing more than just Qatar in that its players are also finding places in top squads worldwide. This season, for the first time, Barcelona have named a product of the Aspire development system in their 25-man Champions League squad. In Belgium the Aspire-owned division two team narrowly missed out on promotion to the first division last season. The team, now including eight Qataris between the first and second teams, is a favourite for promotion this season.
Of the U19 win Aspire Zone – the governing Foundation of which Aspire Academy is a member – CEO Khalid Al Sulaiteen said: “We have been waiting for something like this for a very long time. You can see people are so happy for what Qatar has achieved. We have been criticised for a long time but it is not easy to change the mindset of people… What you see today is the result of 10 years’ work. This is the 10th year of the academy, which is really not that long, and now we are getting champions in football.”
Next stop for the U19s is the FIFA U20 World Cup in New Zealand next year. Clearly they won’t be going there just to make the numbers up.
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