(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula
Doha, Qatar: Aspire Academy's student-athletes were kept occupied during Ramadan with a number of friendly matches for various age groups against several visiting teams.
Syria's under-17 national team and three different generations from Turkish club Galatasaray (under-19, under-15 and under-14) were among the high-profile sides that played.
There were also matches against an under-18 squad from Saudi Arabian club Al Ettifaq as well as three football academies: Romania's FC Players (under-16), FC Champions Cup (under-13) from France and Morocco's Mohammed VI (under-17 and under-19).
The series of friendlies ensured that all the age groups from under-13 through to under-19 all played at least two matches against the visitors with many enjoying four.
All the opponents brought their own challenges for the Aspire Academy teams to recognise, adapt to and ultimately overcome.
With many of the Aspire student-athletes aiming to represent Qatar in the qualifiers for the AFC Under-17 Asia Cup 2025 later this year, there were two key games against Syria. The first match ended in a 1-1 draw before Aspire earned a 2-1 in the second encounter.
Inaki Gonzalez Abadia the Elite Teams Lead for Aspire Academy explained the importance to play these friendly games for our student-athletes:“It was awesome to have all these games and play different football schools from around the world. At the Academy, this is the work to cope up with any ups and downs when our players face different opponents in the future.”
“Always we are thinking about the future. Always, when you believe that you have made one step forward, you say, ah, I need one step more.”
“What can we do as Aspire coaches to help the players to be a little bit better and better? So it's a never-ending story. We are here to try to improve the quality of all the players and produce the best talent for the future for Qatar.”
The Egyptian coach of the Syria under-17 side, Tamer Elatrash, was also pleased that his side had given a stern test and that his players had been given the opportunity to train at Aspire.
“Aspire boasts incredible resources and offers good and modern preparation,” he said.
“For us as a Syrian national team to come here and play games against Aspire provides us with excellent exposure. Also, we have learnt from them in terms of the latest developments in global football. The work it has done for the Qatar national team is very obvious. It is important to come here to gain exposure, which has been very useful for us.”
“These two games were very useful for us, we were more than a match for the Aspire team, and the differences were not big. We will start to work hard in the future and try to improve some tactical aspects and learn what we are supposed to learn.”
The under-17 squad also played two matches against Moroccan academy Mohammed VI as part of their development. The friendly games will continue after the Eid holidays with teams coming to visit at the end of April and again in May.
Various age groups are also heading overseas to Serbia, Turkiye and China in April and May for training camps and to compete in tournaments.
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