Frenchman Christophe Galtier, coach of the first Qatari football team, Al-Duhail, is armed with five foreign professionals in his effort to avoid entering into a game of complex calculations when he visits Al-Nassr, on Tuesday, in the third round of the Group E competitions of the AFC Champions League.
Frenchman Galtier is leading the training of the Qatari team for the first time at the continental championship level after he succeeded Argentine Hernan Crespo, who was dismissed from his position after the team contented itself with earning one point out of 6 points (a draw and a loss), as a result of which it occupied third place, a full 5 points behind leaders Al-Nassr. And two points ahead of Iran’s Persepolis, which is in second place.
Galtier, who is 57 years old, has a career full of titles with the French clubs that he coached, as he led the Saint-Etienne team to win the French League Cup in 2013, and won the French League title with Lille in the 2020-2021 season, before succeeding in achieving the double with Paris. Saint-Germain won the League and the Champions Cup last season, but his career with the capital club ended a year before the end of his contract.
Frenchman Christopher Galtier started his career with the Qatari team perfectly when he led it to a 2-0 victory over Al-Gharafa in the second round of the cup competition, and he hopes to continue his successful career against Al-Nassr despite his awareness of the difficulty of the task.
Galtier said in the press conference, before the match with Al-Nasr: “There was not enough time to face Al-Nasr. I supervised the team’s training in one official match. We had several injuries, but we came to Riyadh for victory.”
Frenchman Christopher Galtier chose 25 players for the Al-Nasr match, which included five foreign players in addition to many local stars, such as Al-Moez Ali, who is nominated to win the Best Asian Player Award in 2022, Karim Boudiaf and Mohamed Moussa.
The list of foreigners from the Qatari team whom Frenchman Galtier is counting on in the upcoming match against Al-Nasr includes the Brazilian winger Philippe Coutinho and the former Samba national team star, who moved between the clubs Inter Milan in Italy, Liverpool in England, Barcelona in Spain and Bayern Munich in Germany, and achieved 9 championships with these clubs, most notably the 2010 Club World Cup with a jersey. Italian Inter Milan and the Champions League with the Bayern Munich 2020 logo.
Coutinho, 31, joined the ranks of Al-Duhail last September, Philippe Coutinho on loan for one season, coming from Aston Villa, England, and participated with the Qatari team in 4 matches, including one in the AFC Champions League, and scored one goal.
Also prominent on the list is 29-year-old Kenyan Michael Olunga, the team’s top scorer in the Asian Championship last season, who began his football career at the Liberty Academy in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, in 2012, and after that he had professional experiences in many local clubs, including Gormahia, and then He traveled to Europe, where he started with the Swedish team Jorgordens in 2016, and then Girona in Spain in 2017, before starting a new station during his professional career in the Asian continent through the Japanese portal Kashiwa Reysol, where he wore his shirt during the period from 2018 to 2021, and from Then he joined the Qatari club Al-Duhail in 2021.
The Kenyan, Alunga, carried the colors of the Qatari team in 89 matches in various competitions, scoring 88 goals and making 7 goals. This season, he played 6 matches, 5 in the local league, and one during his team’s campaign in the AFC Champions League, and he was satisfied with scoring a single goal.
As for the third foreigner in the Qatari team, he is Portuguese Rubén Semedo, the 29-year-old defender, and a former player in many Portuguese clubs such as Sporting Lisbon, Vitoria Setubal and Porto. His professional career was marked by foreign experiences in the Spanish clubs Villa Real and the Greek Olympiacos. The Portuguese defender was also included in the categories. He played for his country’s national teams all the way to the first team, where he played 3 international matches, in two of which he played alongside the legend Cristiano Ronaldo, captain of the Al-Nasr team.
Portuguese Semedo joined Al-Duhail Qatari club in August 2022, and defended the Qatari team’s logo in 24 matches, including 7 during the current sports season.
The list of Al-Duhail foreigners includes a promising player, the Italian of Ivorian origin, Ibrahim Bamba, the 21-year-old midfielder, who joined the Qatari team last July from Vitoria de Guimarães, Portugal.
Bamba played 4 matches for Al-Duhail, including two in the local league, and the same in the AFC Champions League.
In addition to the quartet, there is a foreign player from the Asian continent, South Korean midfielder Kim Moon-hwan, who moved to Al-Duhail last July from Jeonbuk, the AFC Champions League champion in 2006 and 2016.
Kim Moon Hwan, 28 years old, represented the Qatari team in 5 matches (3 in the league and 2 in the Asian Champions League).
2023-10-23 21:11:15
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