CONCACAF hails Qatar team’s Gold Cup participation

The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) highlighted the historic participation of the first team from Qatar in the Gold Cup, for the first time in its career.

The tournament is being held in the US from July 10 to August 1.

The Asian Cup winner will enter the tournament with a list of a distinguished group of players in order to prepare well for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

In a report published on its official website today, the CONCACAF said that Qatar will become this summer the second Asian Football Confederation country to participate in the Gold Cup, after South Korea, which participated in the 2000 and 2002 tournaments, when it was preparing to jointly host the World Cup with Japan.

The CONCACAF also praised striker Akram Afif, considering him one of the most prominent players who hope to lead the Qatar team to achieve success in the tournament, especially since he appeared with the team in 2015, and since then has become one of the most famous players, especially as he scored 19 goals in 64 matches.

The report added that the 24-year-old has already accomplished important achievements by scoring in the finals of the 2014 AFC U19 Championship and the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, and is on his way to achieving his country’s first gold medal in both tournaments.

In addition to his goal in the AFC Asian Cup final, Afif also contributed to his country’s efforts to reach the final with 10 assists in the tournament, and later was named the 2019 Asian Player of the Year.

At the club level, Afif helped his club Al Sadd win the league title twice in 2018-2019 and 2020-2021.

He was the top scorer of the Qatar Stars League in 2019-2020 season, and provided the largest number of assists in the league during the 2018-2019 and 20192020 seasons, in which he also bestowed the Player of the Year award.