TTENNISENNIS | Page 5 CRICKET | Page 7 Zverev to Pune take face Djokovic on Mumbai in Rome in IPL title Masters fi nal showdown Sunday, May 21, 2017 FOOTBALL Sha’baan 25, 1438 AH Wenger looks for GULF TIMES salvation as top four race reaches climax SPORT Page 3 QFA AWARDS Ferreira, Tae-Hee win top honours By Sports Reporter assists helping Lekhwiya win their fi fth a standout fi rst season with the Red Doha QSL title in seven seasons. While Sadd Knights, bagging 24 goals in just 18 ap- missed out on the player award, their pearances for the side. coach Ferreira won the top honours El Arabi’s goalscoring feats are more ekhwiya mid-fi elder Nam Tae- among the coaches. The 70-year-old impressive considering that he trav- Hee and Al Sadd coach Jesualdo beat Lekhwiya’s Djamel Belmadi and El elled to Gabon to represent Morocco Ferreira won top honours at the Jaish’s Sabri Lamouchi to the crown. at the AFCON tournament in January. annual Qatar Football Associa- The veteran Portuguese coach has Despite missing four weeks of action, Ltion awards held yesterday at the Qatar enjoyed considerable success in his the striker stuck seven further goals, to National Convention Centre. Lekhwiya fi rst full season with the Wolves, fi n- seal his status as top scorer along with raked in two more awards yesterday ishing second in the QSL standings just helping Lekhwiya lift the QSL falcon with their striker Yusef El Arabi win- behind champions Lekhwiya. Whilst in shied. ning the Mansour Muftah award for the Cup competitions Ferreira has ex- Lekhwiya won another honour when scoring the most number of goals this celled, guiding Sadd to their fi rst ever Almoez Ali was crowned the best U23 season and Almoez Ali being declared success in the Qatar Cup defeating El player yesterday. The 21-year-old the best U23 player. Jaish 2-1 and also masterminding a 2-1 winger picked up the award beating Al The event was held in the pres- victory over Al Rayyan to win the pres- Gharafa goalkeeper Yusef Hassan and ence of QFA president Sheikh Hamad tigious Emir Cup trophy. Al Sadd midfi elder Salem al-Hajri to bin Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani along Ferriera oversaw an impressive 13 the crown. with a host of other football offi cials game undefeated streak in the league, Amongst the other awards, Shell from Qatar. South Korean international as Al Sadd set the early pace in the won the Football for All award for their Tae-Hee edged out Sadd duo of Hassan QSL. Under Ferriera, Al Sadd enjoyed a Koora time initiative which encourages al-Haydos and Xavi Hernandez to take memorable season of free fl owing foot- children in Qatar to play football. home the top award from the event. ball with plenty of goals. There was also a best referee award The Lekhwiya number ten has per- Lekhwiya striker El Arabi was a de- for the fi rst time and that was won haps enjoyed his fi nest ever season serving winner of the Mansour Muf- jointly by the trio of Abdul Rahman with the Red Knights, notching up tah award for the top scorer of the QSL Ibrahim al-Jassim, Talib al-Marri, and QFA president Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani (right) with the winners of the QFA awards at the Qatar fourteen goals. He also registered nine season. The Moroccan striker enjoyed Saoud Ahmed Saoud al-Makalih. National Convention Centre yesterday. PICTURE: Shemeer Rasheed Gulf Times 2 Sunday, May 21, 2017 FOOTBALL AND THE AWARD GOES TO... Assistant secretary general for tournament aff airs with SC Nasser al-Khater (R) hands over the ‘Football for All’ award. Al Sadd coach Jesualdo Ferreira (L) reacts after receiving the Coach of the Year award during the QFA Lekhwiya striker Yusef El Arabi (L) receiving the Mansour Muftah awards ceremony held at the Qatar National Convention Centre yesterday. PICS: Shemeer Rasheed award as the top scorer for the 2016/2017 QSL season. (L-R) Player of the Year nominees Sadd’s Hassan al-Haydous, Lekhwiya’s Nam Tae-Hee and Sadd QFA president Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani (R) along Lekhwiya striker Almoez Ali (L) receives the QFA U23 Player of the Year skipper Xavi Hernandez sit together yesterday. Tae-Hee won the award. with other dignitaries during the awards ceremony yesterday. award from Qatar U23 coach Felix Sanchez yesterday. SPOTLIGHT Al Sadd was born as a giant, Al Sadd founding father HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah spoke about his great delight after his says al-Attiyah football team won the Emir Cup for the 16th time Agencies fi rst title at the fi rst completed stadium Doha of the 2022 World Cup, HE al-Attiyah said: “History repeats itself because Al Sadd were the team who won the fi rst l Sadd founding father HE fi nal at the Khalifa Stadium, defeating Abdullah bin Hamad al-Atti- Al Rayyan 1-0. This achievement with yah spoke of his great delight the fi rst title win at the new refurbished Aafter the football team won stadium shows that Al Sadd is the past, the Emir Cup for the 16th time, with present and future. Al Sadd writes his- a 2-1 win over Al Rayyan at the Khalifa tory. Winning the 67th title means that International Stadium. Al Sadd are the leaders when it comes to Speaking after the match, HE al- records and statistics. I don’t think any Attiyah said: “Al Sadd have proved that other club can reach these numbers that it truly is the leader of Qatari football. Al Sadd have achieved.” The team deserved to win the treble HE al-Attiyah also spoke about the this season but it could only achieve a Khalifa Stadium: “The match was double after strangely missing out on great and shows the true picture of Qa- the League title. But this is football. We tar’s readiness to host the World Cup. are now the League runners-up and This excellent organisation of the fi nal champions of the Qatar Cup and the match is a message to the world, prov- Emir Cup; this is a new achievement ing that Qatar is capable of hosting not and a new title is going to adorn our just the World Cup in 2022, but any trophy cabinet. This is a reaffi rmation world event, be it the Olympics or any- of Al Sadd’s status as a giant. Al Sadd thing else. Qatar has shown that it is was born as a giant and will remain so.” the sporting capital of the Arab world.” He added: “I want to congratulate myself, the fans, club president HH SADD CHAIRMAN DELIGHTED Sheikh Mohammed, vice president WITH WIN Nasser al-Ali and the management Chairman of Al Sadd HH Sheikh Mo- led by head of football Mohammed hammed bin Khalifa al-Thani prom- Ghanem al-Ali. Special thanks go out ised Sadd fans with more surprises in to all the Al Sadd fans who supported terms of player signings with major the club throughout the season and in stars on par with Raul Gonzalez and all the matches, they were the prime Xavi Hernandez. His Highness noted pillar of support for the team. They that the return to the AFC Champions were behind the team’s comeback in League’s group stage was great news the fi nal after trailing by a goal. The for the club. He expressed hope that players, with the support of the fans, the club gives its best performance in managed to get the equalizer and then the competition next season, given the winning goal. They achieved the the experience they have playing it. He title and showed that Al Sadd is always stressed that the club will work togeth- diffi cult to beat.” er to keep winning next season and ex- As for the achievement of winning the pressed satisfaction with the perform- ance and results this season. SADD DESERVES TO WIN THE EMIR CUP: AL-HAYDOUS Sadd star Hassan al-Haydous had ex- pressed his happiness after the Emir Cup title triumph. He said: “I am very happy to win this prestigious title and Al-Sadd founding father HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah (third left) poses the Emir Cup and the Qatar Cup trophies during a felicitation ceremony at Al Sadd Club winning this title means that we end yesterday. PICS: Othman Iraqi the season in the best manner.” Al-Haydos added: “Al Sadd showed WE NOW AIM TO WIN THE LEAGUE fi cult, as Al-Rayyan are a strong op- ning goal gave the Wolves a 2-1 win are the main support behind the team,” an excellent level of play against Al NEXT SEASON: FERREIRA ponent and play with the desire to over Al Rayyan in the Emir Cup fi nal. he added. Rayyan, who also played an intense Sadd head coach Jesualdo Ferreira win. However, our players managed “I delivered on my promise to my- The Algerian also said: “I scored fi ve game but we managed to come out as was a very happy man after his side to clinch the match before it went to self, which was to score a goal in the goals against Al Rayyan this season but winners in the end.” clinched the Emir Cup title. penalties, just as I wanted. The play- fi nal against Al Rayyan. Although the I consider this goal that I scored in the “We dedicate the win to our fans and Ferreira expressed his gratitude to ers performed excellently and worked normal time was over and we were into fi nal as the most important because it we would like to thank them for sup- all the fans, management and play- hard for this win, which was the reason additional time, I was confi dent that I gave my team a very important title.