As trainee World Cup hosts, Qatar’s organization of the Asian Cup has been subject to intense scrutiny, but their passage to the quarter-finals owes much to players born outside the country’s borders.
Star striker Sebastian Soria hails from Uruguay, midfielder Lawrence Quaye was born in Ghana and schemer Fabio Cesar, who scored a magisterial free-kick in their 3-0 win over Kuwait, is originally from Brazil.
The trio moved to Qatari clubs at roughly the same time — Soria and Quaye joining al-Gharafa in 2004, Cesar pitching up at al-Arabi in 2005 — and were subsequently offered citizenship to allow them to represent the national team.
Photo: AFP
Soria made his debut for his adopted country in 2006 and the bustling 27-year-old rapidly became the fulcrum of the side’s attack, finding the net with impressive regularity.
Cesar made his bow in the maroon of his new homeland in 2008, with Quaye — who represented Ghana at the under-20 level — following suit last year.
“Of course we can benefit from having a player with his quality on the team,” Qatar striker Hussain Yaser said after Quaye shone in the hosts’ Asian Cup warm-up matches. “He has been playing for many years in Qatar and I think that he is one of us.”
Naturalized players are an increasingly common phenomenon in modern soccer, with Brazilian-born midfielders Deco (Portugal) and Marcos Senna (Spain) two of the most high-profile examples of recent years.
The process of offering citizenship to talented foreign players in a bid to artificially strengthen a country’s soccer gene pool has drawn criticism in the past, but Soria says his own experience has been a positive one.
“When I go grocery shopping, the Qatari fans stop me and say: ‘You are the one who deserves to be Qatari. You are the only one who plays with your heart, we like how you play,’” Soria told al-Jazeera in a 2009 interview. “I don’t feel shy about such comments, because it is nice to hear people say these things.”
Foreign coaches have long been an accepted feature of the international soccer landscape and Qatar’s French coach Bruno Metsu has no qualms about capping players who have only been eligible for a handful of years.
Aside from Soria, Quaye and Cesar, Qatar goalkeeper Qasem Burhan was born in the Senegalese capital Dakar and center-back Mohammed Kasola, who made his debut in March last year, is of Kenyan origin.
A cursory scan of the Asian Cup squad lists reveals that Qatar are not alone in having looked abroad to improve the fortunes of their national teams.
Nigerian-born striker Jaycee John now represents Bahrain, along with Chadian-born midfielder Abdullah Omar, while Syrian midfielder Louay Chanko previously turned out for his native Sweden.
India coach Bob Houghton says the practice has had a particularly big impact in the Gulf region.
“The Gulf countries have improved a lot,” said the 63-year-old Englishman, who has also coached China and Uzbekistan. “They now have so many Africans and non-Gulf players. They’re much more physical and difficult to beat. Saudi Arabia use to dominate in the region, but now the other Gulf countries have caught them up, mainly because of the importation of African players.”
Houghton has long lamented the lack of soccer infrastructure in India, who are currently languishing in 144th place in the FIFA world ranking and went out of the Asian Cup at the group phase following three straight defeats.
As India toil to make an impression on the international scene, Houghton could be forgiven for wondering whether a quick-fix solution would be to track down some naturalized South Americans of his own.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but