It’s already 12 years that the sheiks of Qatar are trying to replace talent with investments. This is a story that, according to Dagospia, perfectly highlights the objectives and thoughts of the rich state of Qatar, and their willingness to improve and be the best by acquiring a football tradition that has never been part of Qatar.
As reported, at the entrance of the super-fancy facilities made available to the young players there are two main things, a huge picture of the best player in the history of football, Diego Armando Maradona, and a famous phrase by Aristotle: “Excellency is an art that can be learned by exercising it and with habit”. Qatar is the richest country in the world and the sheiks are paying for the know-how of external sources and building infrastructures to bridge their football gap with the world.
The young players of Qatar’s Aspire Academy are located in a five storey deluxe palace with amenities and luxury comforts. The Aspire Tower is in the background, a 300-meter skyscraper in which occasionally birds are chirping (a sound coming from speakers because the sheiks bought this feature as well), and the Khalifa International stadium construction site.
Who is training the young players of Qatar’s Aspire Academy?
Obviously, the trainers are former football players hired from different sides of the world. One of these coaches, the Brazilan Jose` Moura revealed the main objectives of the sheiks of Qatar: “Our goal is to train these young players in order to build the 2022 national team”. To do so, Qatar is not only focused on Qatar’s Aspire Academy but they are also running another scouting program called Aspire Football Dreams. Scouts are sent in 19 countries to find the best young football talents. So far, according to what reported by Dagospia, 3.5 million players have been screened.
Qatar is running a mega-project with an enormous possibility of development, a project that is feasible only by investing a great amount of funds. Not a problem for them! The director of the Qatar Football Federation Ali Hassan Al-Salat once stated: “With money, anything is possible”.
