Abdulla Obaid Koni ( ar, عبد الله كوني; born on 19 July 1979) is a Qatari former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

ese descent who played as a defender for

Al Sadd Al Sadd Sports Club ( ar, نادي السد الرياضي, lit=Dam Sports Club) is a Qatari sports club based in the Al Sadd district of the city of Doha. It is best known for its association football team, which competes in the ...

and

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

to represent the Qatar national team. He also played for their youth national team.

Career

Koni was born in

. He captained Al Sadd to victory in the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

in 2011. In the round of 16 of the tournament, he scored a decisive header against Al Shabab which turned out to be the winner. His team went on to win the tournament, defeating

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors ( ko, 전북 현대 모터스) is a South Korean professional football club based in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. Playing at the Jeonju World Cup S ...

in the final in South Korea. As a result of the AFC Champions League triumph, he led his team into the

2011 FIFA Club World Cup The 2011 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2011 presented by Toyota for sponsorship reasons) was a football tournament that was played from 8 to 18 December 2011. It was the eighth edition of the FIFA Club Worl ...

. In the quarter-finals, he scored the winning goal against

Espérance de Tunis :''See also Esperance (disambiguation)'' Espérance is one of the two French words that can be translated into "hope", the other being "espoir". Whereas the latter is closer to the idea of "dream" or "fantasy" and corresponds to most of the common ...

slotting in a cross from teammate

Lee Jung-Soo Lee Jung-soo ( ko, 이정수; born 8 January 1980) is a South Korean former professional association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football)#Centre-back, centre-back. Club career Career in South Korea After gra ...

, earning his team a 2–1 victory. This set up a semi-final confrontation against

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

on 15 December 2011. With Barcelona leading 1–0 in the 36th minute, Barcelona forward

David Villa David Villa Sánchez (; born 3 December 1981) is a Spanish retired professional footballer who played as a striker. Villa is regarded by pundits as one of the best forwards of his generation, and one of the best Spanish strikers of all time. ...

timed a run well and allowed for a ball to be played over the top into the path of his run. Villa and Koni raced toward the Al Sadd net. As the ball hit the ground, Villa failed to corral the ball, allowing Koni the time to catch up and challenge for the ball on its next bounce. He made a shoulder challenge on Villa as he attempted to strike the ball, causing Villa to fall awkwardly on his left leg and break it. Because of this, Koni was dubbed as "maybe the most influential player of the

Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

", even though Spain went on to win the tournament without Villa.

Career statistics

International goals

:''Scores and results list Qatar's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Koni goal''.Koni, Abdullah Obaid
/ref>

Honours

Club

Al Sadd *

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...

bronze medalist: 2011 *

: 2011 * Arab Champions League: 2001 *

Qatari League The Qatar Stars League ( ar, دوري نجوم قطر), or the QSL, also called QNB Stars League for sponsorship reasons, is the top level football league in Qatar football league system. Contested by 12 teams, it operates on a system of promotio ...

: 1999–2000, 2003–04, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2012–13 * Emir of Qatar Cup: 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 * Qatar Crown Prince Cup: 1998, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008 *

Sheikh Jassem Cup The Sheikh Jassim Cup ( ar, كأس الشيخ جاسم) is an annual men's super cup competition in Qatari football held between the winner of the Qatar Stars League and the Emir of Qatar Cup. History The inaugural Sheikh Jassim Cup was held in ...

: 1998, 2000, 2002, 2007 *

Qatari Stars Cup The Qatari Stars Cup is a Qatari football competition played during the Qatar Stars League season known as Ooredoo Cup due to sponsorship reasons. The knockout competition, which involves a round-robin league structure, was first started in 2009 ...

: 2010-11

References

External links

Player profile - doha-2006.com
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Koni, Abdullah 1979 births Living people Qatari footballers Qatar international footballers Al Sadd SC players 2007 AFC Asian Cup players Naturalised citizens of Qatar Qatar Stars League players Senegalese emigrants to Qatar Qatari people of Senegalese descent Asian Games medalists in football Footballers at the 2006 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for Qatar Association football defenders Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games