For nineteen-year-old Joseph Ekeoma Williams, who wants to play in the FIFA World Cup in the future, Qatar is a good starting point for his career.
\nBesides having world-class facilities, he said there are good training programmes, experienced coaches and trainers in Qatar.
\nThe best teams in Europe and in other countries also visit and train in the country, he added.
\n\u201cThe chance to watch the players is already inspiring for us,\u201d said Williams.
\nHe also cited the country\u2019s hosting of the FIFA World Cup 2022, where various opportunities for young players like him may be available.
\nThe Nigerian football player was part of a team participating at the \u201cWelcome to Aspire Ramadan tournament\u201d.
\nHis team, Al Wadi, won their first game on Sunday night against the \u201cStep into Health\u201d team, 8-0.
\n\u201cOur game was fantastic, we won 8-0, but the most important thing is that there were no casualties, no injuries, none at all,\u201d he told Gulf Times.
\nOrganised by Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF), the community-inspired event features nine different sports which promote healthy and active lifestyles.
\nFootball matches are being held at the Outdoor Pitch 10 and Warm Up Track.
\nOn his team\u2019s performance, Williams noted that the team members did well both individually and as a group.
\nHe believes that they will play even better in the next matches. \u201cWe will do our best.\u201d
\nWilliams said that his teammates were too strong \u201cfor our opponents tonight: (we had the advantage of) speed, endurance, balance position, and kicks\u201d.
\nHe describes the AZF\u2019s tournament as encouraging, inspiring young players to excel in this sport.
\nWilliams, who came to Qatar three months ago, does not belong to any of the football clubs yet. This was also his first time to join a league in Doha competing against 15 other teams.
\nGiven the opportunity, he wants to go to Europe two years from now and play with some of the best teams in the league.
\n\u201cFor me Qatar is a starting point. I want to see how it is in the Arab world. The opportunity to play in Qatar just came, so I took it. My plan is to go to Europe,\u201d stressed Williams, who started playing the game at age nine.
\nHis is a family of footballers; his father, who played in the national level, trained him.
\nWilliams said that Nigeria is a football-loving country, which is one of the reasons why they are passionate about the game.
\n\u201cMy father encouraged me and I want to do my best,\u201d he said.
\nMeanwhile, defending champions Al-Andalus proved their might by beating Mreakh 6-0 during the opening day matches, while Flamengo trounced Tadmur\/ROOTS company 2-1.
\nThe football matches will be held every night at the Warm Up Track and Outdoor Pitch 10 starting at 9.15pm. The finals match is set on July 24.
\nIn basketball, Oryx gored Uno while HMC defeated Doomie.
\nSustainable Energy overpowered the Roots Bulls.
\nQassim al-Hemdi, a representative of the Supreme Committee for Health team, earlier said that the programme will help players maintain their fitness level during the month of Ramadan.
\nThe Welcome to Aspire Ramadan Festival is open to all members of the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For nineteen-year-old Joseph Ekeoma Williams, who wants to play in the FIFA World Cup in the future, Qatar is a good starting point for his career.
\nBesides having world-class facilities, he said there are good training programmes, experienced coaches and trainers in Qatar.
\nThe best teams in Europe and in other countries also visit and train in the country, he added.
\n\u201cThe chance to watch the players is already inspiring for us,\u201d said Williams.
\nHe also cited the country\u2019s hosting of the FIFA World Cup 2022, where various opportunities for young players like him may be available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}