14 Tuesday, July 16, 2019 Sports Al Sadd players arrive in Barcelona for pre-season camp Al Duhail sign Iraqi wonderkid Mimi on a five-year deal TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK DOHA AMIR Cup champions Al Du- hail have signed Iraqi inter- national Mohanad Ali on a five-year deal from Al Shorta according to the club’s web- site and social media chan- nels. The 19-year-old fondly called ‘Mimi’ was part of the Iraq national team which lost in the AFC Asian Cup round The Al Sadd first team delegation arrived in Barcelona on Sunday night, ahead of the 2019-20 pre-season camp. The Wolves are scheduled of 16 to Qatar back in January to play three friendly games during the camp. The team will stay at the Hotel Vall de Bas in Olot, for the duration of the camp which lasts this year. until July 29. Upon their arrival at the hotel, the players were welcomed by the new head coach Xavi Hernandez. Ali is known for his tech- nique on the ball and has an impressive ability to score goals, having recorded nine Mohanad Ali signs his contract with Amir Cup champions Al Duhail SC. Road to 2022 goals in 18 matches for the Iraq national team. He is also with one of the most impor- the AFC Champions League. I Africa change World Cup qualifying format for Qatar 2022 a very good passer of the ball tant Asian clubs, with great promise everyone that I will with speed and excellent vi- success in the past seasons. do my utmost The club used AFRICAN teams will contest a final playoff round in their World Cup 2022 qualification campaign, a system last employed for the 2014 tournament, sion on the pitch. “Joining Al Duhail is a my services,” Ali said on the the Confederation of African Football has decided. Qualifiers for the next World Cup in Qatar will be divided into three stages with two rounds of The youngster would new challenge in my profes- club’s website. knockout ties on either side of league competition, officials said. The 28 lowest ranked sides on the continent will first contest a knockout round be a great addition for the sional career. I wish success “I know of the great task over two legs, with the 14 winners advancing to the group stage. Red Knights who have seen and the ability to make the that awaits me especially as The 28 include Madagascar, who reached the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals last week. The winners will join the 26 highest ranked sides in a Yousef El Arabi and Shoya fans happy and win titles the Iraqi football fans will be 40-team, 10-group pool phase that will be played over 18 months. The group winners will then be drawn into five playoff ties over two legs with the Nakajima both depart the with the team that includes a watching as my career pro- victors qualifying for the World Cup. The first leg is hosted by the lower ranked country. The changes come despite no alteration in the number of club this summer. distinguished group of Qatari gresses and I hope to have World Cup places for African teams. FIFA have left each continental confederation to decide its qualifying format for the 2022 World Cup. (REUTERS) “I am very happy to be stars and compete strongly in more success with my team.” Thomas in driving seat as Tour rivals lose time REUTERS ALBI, FRANCE Neymar gestures during the Red CHAMPION Geraint Thomas Bull Neymar Jr’s Five tournament, and his Ineos team found recently. (EPA-EFE) themselves in the Tour de France driving seat after gaining considerable time on Neymar returns a handful of rivals as cross- Algeria’s forward Riyad Mahrez scores from a free-kick during the winds caused chaos in the to PSG training 2019 Africa Cup of Nations semi-final against Nigeria at the Cairo peloton in the climax of Mon- International Stadium on Sunday. (AFP) day’s 10th stage. with future still Thomas was on the right end of a bunch split 35 kilo- up in the air Inexperience and metres from the finish of the 217.5km ride from St Flour AFP with France’s Thibaut Pi- PARIS individual mistakes not, Dane Jakob Fuglsang, Colombian Rigoberto Uran NEYMAR showed up for train- and Australian Richie Porte ing at Paris Saint-Germain on cost young Nigerian trapped behind. Monday, according to French Ineos were the driving media reports, a week late and force at the front of the bunch days after controversially claim- side at AFCON and with the help of sprinters’ ing his best football memory was teams and Nairo Quintana’s Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas (front) and beating PSG with Barcelona. REUTERS “We have to work much Movistar, they increased the cyclists ride in a group in the back of the race A video posted on the web- CAIRO more, we are young, our gap to 1:40 in the final kilome- during the tenth stage of the Tour de France site of leading sports daily midfield is the youngest tres after Pinot and company between Saint-Flour and Albi on Monday. (AFP) L’Equipe showed the 27-year- ON the eve of Nigeria’s Af- one, and (Wilfred) Ndidi, came agonisingly close to mak- old Brazilian – his hair dyed rica Cup of Nations semi-fi- (Oghenekaro) Etebo and ing it back. peroxide blonde – getting out nal against Algeria, defender (Alex) Iwobi, they have to Belgian debutant Wout of a black Mercedes van at the Kenneth Omeruo warned his learn tactically, they have to van Aert won his maiden Tour a positioning error on their Kruijswijk is fourth, 15 club’s training ground in the team mates not to give away make a better communica- stage in a sprint finish with part is great from our point seconds behind Thomas, suburbs of the French capital. free kicks on the edge of the tion,” said the German. Thomas, Egan Bernal and of view. In the end it’s a really with Yates in seventh place PSG officially began pre- penalty area. “But they will do it.” Quintana in the main group, as good day for us.” It’s a good gap now - and 35 seconds adrift of the season training last Monday Four minutes into stop- Much could depend on how well as Briton Adam Yates and Spain’s Mikel Landa, who we’ve landed a good blow reigning champion, and 17 but Neymar, linked with a move page time of Sunday’s match, the club careers of the play- Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk. featured in the first group, on a day when you wouldn’t seconds ahead of eighth- back to Barcelona, was not with the score at 1-1 and Ni- ers progress. “We were in the perfect crashed when a rider lost really have expected it. To placed Quintana. there, with the player’s camp geria looking in better shape Some, such as Arsenal’s position when it split - we all balance next to him and he gain a minute and a half It was the worst possible maintaining he had a prior to face extra-time, they did Iwobi and Leicester City’s committed when we needed crossed the line with a 2:08 scenario for Pinot, one of the agreement to stay away. exactly that, giving Riyad Ndidi are established in the to,” said Thomas, who moved deficit. due to a positioning error world’s best climbers who was The French champions re- Mahrez a pot at goal from his English Premier League while up to second overall. “(French champion) War- on their part is great from hoping to battle it out with sponded last week by threat- favourite position just to the Samuel Chukwueze, 20, has “When they tried to close ren Barguil touched my wheel our point of view. In the end Thomas in the mountains, as ening to take “appropriate ac- right of the centre. won a first team place with La it as quickly as possible but and lost his balance,” said it’s a really good day for us. he lost a massive amount of tion” against the world’s most There was a sense of inevi- Liga’s Villarreal. couldn’t manage it, that’s when race leader Julian Alaphilippe, time on the flat. expensive player, who said he tability as the winger curled Others have found them- the elastic snapped and we re- whose brutal acceleration in Geraint Thomas “Nothing to say, it was a had stayed in Brazil to attend a the ball around the wall and selves shunted around on loan ally gained a bit of time. the crosswind caused the deci- shitty day,” said a tearful Pinot, charity five-a-side football tour- into the net to give Algeria to various clubs such as cen- “It’s a good gap now - and sive split. Thomas still leads Ber- who started the day as the best- nament run by his foundation, a 2-1 win and end Nigeria’s tral defender Omeruo, who we’ve landed a good blow on The move caused a ma- nal by four seconds but Pinot placed of the overall contend- the Neymar Institute. dream of a fourth title. is a Chelsea player but in the a day when you wouldn’t re- jor shakedown of the rank- slipped down to 11th, 1:21 be- ers after gaining almost half a Neymar’s father, who is also Throughout the tourna- last four seasons has played ally have expected it.