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Almoez Ali

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Almoez Ali
Ali with the 2019 AFC Asian Cup Golden Boot trophy after winning the tournament with Qatar
Personal information
Full name Almoez Ali Zainalabedeen Mohamed Abdulla[1]
Date of birth (1996-08-19) 19 August 1996 (age 28)
Place of birth Khartoum, Sudan[2]
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[3]
Position(s) Striker, winger[4]
Team information
Current team
 Al-Duhail
Number 11
Youth career
2003–2006 Al-Mesaimeer
2006–2013 Aspire Academy
2013–2014 Lekhwiya
2014–2015 Eupen
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2015 LASK II 4 (5)
2015–2016 LASK 7 (1)
2016 Cultural Leonesa 10 (1)
2016–2017 Al-Duhail B 4 (1)
2016– Al-Duhail 157 (54)
International career‡
2014–2015 Qatar U20 9 (3)
2016–2018 Qatar U23 7 (6)
2013– Qatar 116 (57)
Medal record
Men's football
Representing  Qatar
AFC Asian Cup
Winner 2019 UAE
Winner 2023 Qatar
FIFA Arab Cup
Third place 2021 Qatar
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 2 November 2024
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 15 October 2024

Almoez Ali Zainalabedeen Mohamed Abdulla (Arabic: المعز علي زين العابدين محمد عبد الله; born 19 August 1996) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for and captains the Qatar Stars League club Al-Duhail. Born in Sudan, he plays for the Qatar national team, and is currently the nation's all-time top goalscorer.

Ali was a member of the Qatar squads which won back-to-back AFC Asian Cup titles in 2019 and 2023; at the 2019 Asian Cup, he scored a single-edition record nine goals, and was named the tournament's best player.[5] He is also the only footballer to score in three different intercontinental championships — those being the AFC Asian Cup, the Copa América and the CONCACAF Gold Cup.[6]

Club career

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Early career

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Ali was born in Sudan and moved to Qatar as a child.[7][8] His mother is a native Sudanese. He started playing for Al-Mesaimeer when he was 7 years old, then moved to Aspire Academy and played youth football at Lekhwiya SC.[9][10] He was also a part of the youth setup for Belgian club Eupen in 2015.[11]

LASK

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In July 2015, Ali joined the senior team of Austrian club LASK.[12] His first and only Austrian Bundesliga league goal for the club's first team came on 27 November 2015 against Floridsdorfer AC, becoming the second Qatari to score a league goal in Austria’s top league, after Adel Jadoua Ali.[13]

Cultural Leonesa

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In January 2016, Ali left the club and joined Cultural Leonesa in Spain's third tier, the Segunda División B.[14] On 3 April 2016, he scored his first goal for Cultural Leonesa in a 1–0 victory over Arandina,[15] becoming the first Qatari footballer ever to score in a Spanish league.[16]

Al-Duhail

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Ali playing for Al-Duhail in 2018

Ali rejoined his former youth club Lekhwiya SC for the 2016–17 season. He scored his first goal for the club on 27 September 2016 in a 5–4 win against Muaither.[17] He went on to make 25 appearances and scoring 8 goals, as well as providing 8 assists and being awarded as the best U23 player of the season as his club won the Qatar Stars League.[18]

In the following season, Ali was part of the newly rebranded Al-Duhail, as his former club was merged with El Jaish, and was part of the unbeaten 2017–18 Qatar Stars League title campaign.[19]

International career

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Ali unofficially made his inaugural appearance for the senior national team in a friendly against Bahrain in December 2013. The match was not recognized by FIFA.[20]

In 2014, Ali was a part of the Qatar U19 team that won the 2014 AFC U-19 Championship. In 2015, he was part of the Qatar U20 squad for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup. He played in the three group stage matches, but Qatar did not advance to the knockout stage.[21][22][23]

On 8 August 2016, Ali made his official senior debut for the national team as a substitute in 2–1 win against Iraq.[24] Furthermore, he was the top scorer in the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship with six goals and played an instrumental role in Qatar's third-place ranking.[25]

2019 AFC Asian Cup

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Ali celebrating after scoring a goal against UAE at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup semi-final.

Ali was selected for Qatar's squad in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. He found the net in his team's first group stage game against Lebanon. In the next game against North Korea, he scored a four goals in a span of 51 minutes,[26] the second fastest time to four goals after Iranian Ali Daei, who scored four goals in 23 minutes against South Korea in the 1996 AFC Asian Cup.[27]

The following match, against Saudi Arabia, he increased his tally in the competition to seven goals after scoring both goals in the 2–0 win.[28] In doing so, he became the joint-top scorer in the AFC Asian Cup Group Stage, sharing the record with Ali Daei of Iran, Choi Soon-ho of South Korea and Naohiro Takahara of Japan. He also broke Mansour Muftah's all-time record of five goals scored for the Qatar national team in the AFC Asian Cup.[29]

In the semi-final against United Arab Emirates, Ali scored his eighth goal of the competition in a 4–0 win, equalling Ali Daei's mark established in 1996 as the most goals scored in a single AFC Asian Cup edition.[30] He broke that record in the following game after scoring the opening goal with a bicycle kick at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup Final match against Japan.[31][32]

Eligibility dispute

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On 30 January 2019, soon after the 4–0 defeat at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup semifinal, the UAE FA lodged a formal appeal to the AFC over the eligibility of Sudanese-born Almoez Ali and Iraqi-born Bassam Al-Rawi, claiming that they did not qualify to play for Qatar on residency grounds based on Article 7 of the FIFA statute [33] which states that a player's eligibility to play for a representative team if he has "lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant association". It was alleged that Almoez had not lived continuously in Qatar for at least five years over the age of 18, although the player claimed that his mother was born in Qatar.[34] On 1 February 2019, the AFC Disciplinary and Ethics Committee dismissed the protest lodged by the United Arab Emirates Football Association without further comments or explanation.[35][36][37] In August 2020, the case was finally settled at CAS (Court of Arbirtration for Sport, based in Lausanne, Switzerland) with the UAE losing its appeal against the Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) decision.

2019–2022: Invitation tournaments and 2022 FIFA World Cup

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On 16 June 2019, Ali scored in Qatar's 2–2 draw with Paraguay in the 2019 Copa América.[38] Ali was included in Qatar's squad for the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup. He scored four goals in the competition to clinch the top scorer award.[39]

In November 2022, he was included in Qatar's squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He started in all three group matches as Qatar made its first appearance at the FIFA World Cup tournament.[40]

2023 AFC Asian Cup

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On 3 January 2024, Ali was named in Qatar's squad for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup.[41] In the team's opening match of the tournament, he scored Qatar's second goal in a 3–0 win over Lebanon in Lusail.[42] In the semi-final match against Iran, he scored the winning goal in a 3–2 victory, which qualified his country to their second final in a row.[43] On 10 February 2024, Ali won the 2023 AFC Asian Cup which was his second in a row for him.

On 16 November 2023, Ali scored his second poker goal (4 goals) for Qatar during the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Kuwait in a thrashing 8–1 victory.

Career statistics

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Club

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As of match played 2 November 2024[44]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National cup[a] Continental Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
LASK II 2015 Austrian Regionalliga 4 5 — — — 4 5
LASK 2015–16 Austrian Second League 7 1 2 0 — — 9 1
Cultural Leonesa 2016 Segunda División B 10 1 — — — 10 1
Al-Duhail B 2016–17 Qatari Second Division 4 1 — — — 4 1
Al-Duhail 2016–17 Qatar Stars League 25 8 2 0 7[b] 1 2[c] 0 36 9
2017–18 16 7 3 2 10[b] 2 3[d] 1 32 12
2018–19 18 3 3 0 5[b] 1 1[e] 0 27 4
2019–20 19 7 2 2 6[b] 3 2[f] 1 29 13
2020–21 20 6 3 0 6[b] 0 4[g] 1 33 7
2021–22 17 7 3 2 5[b] 2 0 0 25 11
2022–23 14 4 1 0 3[b] 0 4[h] 0 22 4
2023–24 19 7 3 0 6[b] 1 1 0 29 8
2024–25 9 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 5
Total 157 54 20 6 48 10 17 3 239 73
Career total 182 62 20 6 48 10 17 3 272 82
  1. ^ Includes Austrian Cup
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Appearances in AFC Champions League
  3. ^ One appearance in Sheikh Jassim Cup, one appearance in Qatar Cup
  4. ^ One appearance and one goal in Sheikh Jassim Cup, two appearances in Qatar Cup
  5. ^ One appearance in Sheikh Jassim Cup
  6. ^ two appearances in Qatar Cup
  7. ^ Two appearances and one goal in FIFA Club World Cup, two appearances in Qatar Cup
  8. ^ One appearance in Ooredoo Cup,Three appearances in Qatar Cup

International

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Main article: List of international goals scored by Almoez Ali
As of match played 15 October 2024[20][45]
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
Qatar 2013 1 0
2016 3 0
2017 17 5
2018 11 5
2019 20 15
2020 4 4
2021 24 10
2022 13 3
2023 10 8
2024 13 7
Total 116 57

Honours

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Al-Duhail

Qatar U19

Qatar

Individual

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Almoez Ali". Global Sports Archive. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  2. ^ "Qatar's Almoez Ali pick of the bunch in Asian Cup for young forwards". Qatar-Tribune. 20 January 2019.
  3. ^ "Almoez Ali - AFC Asian Cup 2019".
  4. ^ "المنتخب القطري يتوج بطلا لكأس آسيا لكرة القدم 2019 لأول مرة في تاريخه". جريدة لوسيل (in Arabic). 1 February 2019.
  5. ^ @afcasiancup (1 February 2019). "Al Moez Ali is your #AsianCup2019 top scorer and he did it in style!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  6. ^ "AFC Asian Cup 2023: Almoez Ali Seeks to Engrave His Name in History Records Again as Tournament's Top Scorer". Qatar News Agency. 8 January 2024. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  7. ^ "Asian Cup: Qatar beats Saudi Arabia in first meeting on pitch since blockade". Middle East Eye.
  8. ^ "A Copa da Ásia define seus mata-matas, com o Catar surpreendendo como melhor da fase de grupos | Trivela" (in Portuguese). 17 January 2019. Archived from the original on 17 April 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  9. ^ "المعز علي: لم أتوقع فوزي كأفضل لاعب صاعد". 20 May 2017.
  10. ^ "AlMoez 'AlMoez' Ali Abdulla (32) Forward". LASK Linz. Archived from the original on 2 August 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  11. ^ "Katar mit 6 KAS-Spielern" (in German). KAS Eupen. 5 June 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  12. ^ "Almoez Ali". Norsk Internasjonal Fotballstatistikk. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  13. ^ "LASK Linz-Floridsdorfer AC". Republica Sport. 27 November 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  14. ^ Marcel Yildiz (4 January 2016). "Duo verlässt den LASK" (in German). Fussball Imnetz.
  15. ^ "Continúa la mala racha ribereña". Diario de Burgos. 3 April 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  16. ^ "Entrevista. Ali Almoez: "Quiero subir a Segunda el próximo año"". VAVEL (in Spanish). 10 April 2016.
  17. ^ "Lekhwiya set early pace". www.thepeninsulaqatar.com. 27 September 2016.
  18. ^ "Almoez Ali wins best U23 player award". Qatar Stars League. 20 May 2017. Archived from the original on 13 June 2021. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  19. ^ "Undefeated Al Duhail secure sixth Qatar Stars League title". www.the-afc.com.
  20. ^ a b "Abdulla, Almoez Ali". national-football-teams.com.
  21. ^ "FIFA U-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015 - Matches - Qatar-Colombia". Archived from the original on 2 June 2015.
  22. ^ "FIFA U-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015 - Matches - Qatar-Portugal". Archived from the original on 21 June 2015.
  23. ^ "FIFA U-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015 - Matches - Senegal-Qatar". Archived from the original on 8 June 2015.
  24. ^ "Qatar vs. Iraq - Football Match Summary - August 8, 2016 - ESPN".
  25. ^ Adwaidh Rajan (14 January 2019). "AFC Asian Cup 2019: Almoez Ali and Akram Afif – Qatar's hopes for 2022 World Cup". Fox Sports Asia. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  26. ^ "AFC Asian Cup 2019: Almoez Ali sets new AFC Asian Cup record in Qatar's 6–0 demolition of DPR Korea". Fox Sports Asia. 13 January 2019. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  27. ^ "Moments and Milestones: Ali Daei's 23 minute masterclass". Tehran Times. 1 July 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  28. ^ "Shiotani fires Japan past Uzbeks, Qatar's Ali downs Saudis". AFP. 17 January 2019. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  29. ^ Abdelaziz Abuhamar (18 January 2019). "Stats: Almoez strikes against Saudi set new marks in Asian Cup history". Inside World Football. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  30. ^ "Qatar's Almoez Ali equals tournament record goal tally". www.the-afc.com.
  31. ^ "AFC Asian Cup 2019: Japan 0-1 Qatar - Almoez Ali (12')". FOX Sports Asia. Archived from the original on 9 November 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  32. ^ "Qatar stun Japan with 3-1 win to be crowned Asian Cup champions". Guardian. 1 February 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  33. ^ "FIFA STATUTES April 2015 edition" (PDF).
  34. ^ "UAE lodge formal protest with AFC over eligibility of two Qatar players at Asian Cup". The National. 31 January 2019.
  35. ^ "UAE FA protest dismissed". The-AFC.com. Asian Football Confederation. 1 February 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  36. ^ "AFC gives its verdict on UAE's complaint over eligibility of 2 Qatar players in AFC Asian Cup 2019". foxsportsasia.com. Fox Sports. 1 February 2019. Archived from the original on 9 November 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  37. ^ "UAE protest at eligibility of Qataris dismissed on day of final". Reuters. 1 February 2019. Archived from the original on 2 February 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  38. ^ "Qatar shake up Copa with thrilling comeback against Paraguay". Euronews. 16 June 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  39. ^ "Qatar's Almoez Ali scoops 2021 Gold Cup Top Scorer Award". AFC. 2 August 2021.
  40. ^ "Player Profile — Almoez Ali". USA Today. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
  41. ^ "Our final list for Asia". Twitter. Qatar Football Association. 3 January 2024. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
  42. ^ "Group A: Qatar 3-0 Lebanon". Asian Football Confederation. 13 January 2024. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
  43. ^ "Hosts Qatar beat Iran in thriller to set up Asian Cup final against Jordan". The Guardian. 7 February 2024.
  44. ^ "Almoez Ali". Soccerway. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  45. ^ "Almoez Ali Abdulla - Century of International Appearances". RSSSF. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
  46. ^ "AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Technical Report and Statistics". AFC. 29 May 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  47. ^ "AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 Technical Report" (PDF). AFC. 12 August 2024. p. 69. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
  48. ^ "IFFHS MAN TEAM - AFC - OF THE DECADE 2011-2020". IFFHS. 30 January 2021.
  49. ^ "Qatar's Ali earns 2021 Gold Cup Top Scorer Award". CONCACAF. 2 August 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  50. ^ "Turner, Funes Mori named to Best XI". CONCACAF. 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
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