Almoez Ali


Almoez Ali Zainalabiddin Abdullah is a Sudanese-born Qatari professional footballer who plays for Qatar and Al-Duhail in the Qatar Stars League as a forward. He is a member of the Qatar national team which helped the team to win 2019 AFC Asian Cup. He holds the record of most goals scored in an AFC Asian Cup, scoring nine in the 2019 edition.

Club career

Almoez Ali was born in Sudan and moved to Qatar as a child. He started playing for Al-Mesaimeer when he was 7 years old, then moved to Aspire Academy and played youth football at Lekhwiya SC. He was also a part of the youth setup for Belgian club Eupen in 2015.
In July 2015, Ali joined the senior team of Austrian club LASK Linz. His first and only league goal for the club's first team came on 27 November 2015 against Floridsdorfer AC. In January 2016, he left the club and joined Cultural Leonesa in Spain's third tier, the Segunda División B. On 3 April 2016, he scored his first goal for Cultural Leonesa in a 1–0 victory over Arandina, becoming the first Qatari footballer ever to score in a Spanish league.
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. 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.
In the following season, Almoez Ali was part of the newly rebranded Al-Duhail, as his former club was merged with El Jaish and was part of the unbeaten QSL title campaign.

International career

Almoez 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.
In 2014, Almoez 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.
On 8 August 2016, Almoez Ali made his official senior debut for the national team as a substitute in 2–1 win against Iraq. 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.

2019 AFC Asian Cup

He 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, 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.
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. 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.
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. 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.

Eligibility dispute

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 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. 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.

2019 Copa América

On 16 June, Ali scored in Qatar's 2–2 draw with Paraguay in the 2019 Copa América.

International goals

GoalDateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
15 October 2017Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar1–03–1Friendly
25 October 2017Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar2–03–1Friendly
314 December 2017Hamad bin Khalifa Stadium, Doha, Qatar1–01–2Friendly
423 December 2017Al Kuwait Sports Club Stadium, Kuwait City, Kuwait3–04–023rd Arabian Gulf Cup
526 December 2017Al Kuwait Sports Club Stadium, Kuwait City, Kuwait1–01–223rd Arabian Gulf Cup
67 September 2018Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar1–01–0Friendly
711 September 2018Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar1–03–0Friendly
812 October 2018Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar2–04–3Friendly
912 October 2018Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar4–14–3Friendly
1023 December 2018Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar1–02–0Friendly
119 January 2019Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates2–02–02019 AFC Asian Cup
1213 January 2019Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates1–06–02019 AFC Asian Cup
1313 January 2019Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates2–06–02019 AFC Asian Cup
1413 January 2019Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates4–06–02019 AFC Asian Cup
1513 January 2019Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates5–06–02019 AFC Asian Cup
1617 January 2019Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates1–02–02019 AFC Asian Cup
1717 January 2019Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates2–02–02019 AFC Asian Cup
1829 January 2019Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates2–04–02019 AFC Asian Cup
191 February 2019Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates1–03–12019 AFC Asian Cup
2016 June 2019Estádio do Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil1–22–22019 Copa América
215 September 2019Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar1–06–02022 FIFA World Cup qualification
225 September 2019Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar2–06–02022 FIFA World Cup qualification
235 September 2019Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar5–06–02022 FIFA World Cup qualification
2416 October 2019Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah, Qatar2–12–12022 FIFA World Cup qualification
2529 November 2019Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar3–06–024th Arabian Gulf Cup

Honours and achievements

Club

;Al-Duhail
;Qatar U19
;Qatar