Akram Afif wins QFA Best Player award
Doha, Qatar: Qatar international Akram Afif shone the brightest as his club Al Sadd dominated the annual Qatar Football Association Awards ceremony at Qatar National Convention Centre on Tuesday.
Afif, who had played a stellar role in Qatar’s Asian Cup triumph, continued his form to help Sadd storm to the QNB Stars League title and that was enough for him to take home the Best Player award ahead of his club mate Baghdad Bounedjah and Al Annabi strike partner Almoez Ali.
Afif thanked his teammates after accepting the award from Qatar Football Association Vice-President Soud Al Mohannadi who is also the AFC vice president and a FIFA Council member.
“It’s a great honour to win the award especially because there are so many good players in Qatar,” said Afif.
“I thank the QFA, my coaches (Felix) Sanchez of the national team and (Jesualdo) Ferreira (of Al Sadd) and of course my colleagues for helping me win this honour,” he added.
"I like to thank my friends and teammates for making this award possible for me. I congratulate Bounedjah who is my partner at Sadd and Almoez is closest friend. They are all top players," said Afif who scored 26 goals in the QNB Stars League to finish as second highest-scorer.
Bounedjah, who had shattered the scoring charts with 39 goals accepted his Mansour Muftah award for the top-scorer while Sadd’s Jesualdo Ferreira was chosen as the best coach of the season.
Al Duhail SC had swept the awards ceremony last season, but this time they had to settle for the U-23 player award with Bassam Al Rawi winning it ahead of Al Gharafa goalkeeper Youssef Hassan and Al Sailiya’s exciting young talent Abdeirahman Moustafa.
Al Sailiya coach Sami Trabelsi was shortlisted for the best coach award along with Al Shahania's Jose Murcia and the Tunisian was rewarded for his impressive job with a Special Recognition award.
Abdulrahman Al Jassim, Taleb Salem and Soud Ahmed won the best referee awards.
Al Yarmouk Preparatory School for Boys won the ‘Football for All’ award
