The Qatar national under-20 football team is the national youth team of

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

and is controlled by the

Qatar Football Association The Qatar Football Association ( ar, الاتحاد القطري لكرة القدم, al-Ittiḥād al-Qaṭariyy li-Kurat al-Qadam) is the governing body of football in Qatar. President Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Ahmed Al-Thani is currently ...

. Qatar's U-20 national team played an important role in the development of football in Qatar and gave it one its first shining moment on the global stage when the youth squad finished second in the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship in Australia.

History

Formation

In response to the recently established World Youth Championship, Qatar established its national youth team in 1976. However, they were unable to qualify for the first two World Youth Championships in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

in Tunisia and in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

in Japan.

1981 World Youth Championship

In the

1980 AFC Youth Championship The 1980 AFC Youth Championship was held from 21 February to 1 March 1981 in Bangkok, Thailand. The tournament was won by for the fifth time by South Korea. Qualification The finals will consist of five teams from the qualification phase. Qu ...

which were held in Thailand, Qatar U20s finished as runners-up after losing to South Korea in the final. This granted them a spot in the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship, which was hosted in Australia. Under the supervision of Brazilian coach Evaristo de Macedo, the championships proved to be a success. Facing

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in the quarter-finals, they were able to secure a 3–2 victory by utilizing the offside trap. They went on to face England in the semi-finals, where they earned a 2–1 victory after a fine performance by their goalkeeper. The team finished second after losing 0–4 to

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

in the final on a wet pitch which was unfavorable to the Qataris as they were not used to playing in such conditions. As a result of achieving runners-up position, each Qatari player received 100,000 Qatari riyals, a Mercedes Benz, and a bungalow. The population of Qataris was only 120,000 at the time of this achievement.

1995 World Youth Championship

Qatar earned its second international U-20 World Cup appearance in 1995 as hosts. While Nigeria was preparing to host the

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

edition, an Ebola epidemic broke out in west Africa, and as a result, FIFA decided to award the hosting rights to Qatar with only twenty days remaining till the start of the championships.

2014 AFC U-19 Championship

Qatar's youth team won the

AFC U-19 Championship The AFC U-20 Asian Cup, formerly known as the AFC Youth Championship and AFC U-19 Championship, is a biennial international association football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-20 national teams ...

for the first time in its history after defeating DPR Korea 1–0 in the final of the

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...

edition which took place in Myanmar. Advancing undefeated from a group which included DPR Korea and Iraq, they defeated China 4–2 in the quarter-finals, and earned a 3–2 victory after extra time against the hosts in the semi-finals. In the finals, the Qataris would be victorious against DPR Korea for a second time in the tournament, with super sub Akram Afif scoring the only goal of the match in the second half. The entire squad was composed of

Aspire Academy Aspire Academy ( ar, أكاديمية أسباير, Akādīmiyat 'Asbāyr) is a sports academy based in the Aspire Zone in Qatar, founded in 2004 with the goal to scout and help develop Qatari athletes, whilst also providing them with secondar ...

students. As a result of Aspire's HOPE Project (Holistic Overseas Player Experience), most of the squad were European-based.

Competitive record

AFC U-19 Championship record

FIFA U-20 World Cup

* Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Current squad

The following players were selected to take part in the

2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 22nd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 197 ...

Results and fixtures

2020

Managerial history

* Evaristo de Macedo (xx) *

José Faria José 'Mehdi' Faria (April 26, 1933 – October 8, 2013) was a Brazilian football coach. He coached Morocco in the 1986 FIFA World Cup, when they became the first African team to advance to the second round. He converted to Islam when coach ...

(1979) * Evaristo de Macedo (xx) *

João Francisco João Francisco Nóbrega da Silva (born January 28, 1947 in Mangaratiba) is a former Brazilian football manager. Honors ;Vila Nova * Campeonato Goiano:: 1977 ;Cruzeiro * Campeonato Mineiro: 1984 ;Al-Arabi * Sheikh Jassim Cup: 1982–83 ;Join ...

(1986) * Edison de Souza (1987) *

Celso Roth Celso Juarez Roth (born 30 November 1957 in Caxias do Sul) is a Brazilian football manager and former player who played as a central defender. He is the current head coach of Juventude. Coaching career On 4 May 2009 the former Grêmio coac ...

(1991–92) * Marcio Maximo (1994) *

Jørgen E. Larsen Jørgen Erik Larsen (25 July 1945 – 7 February 2020) was a Danish football coach and player. He spent most of his playing career at Herfølge Boldklub, playing 197 games for the club. In 1978, he was named sports director of Herfølge Boldkl ...

(1995) *

Alejandro Sabella Alejandro Javier Sabella (; 5 November 19548 December 2020) was an Argentine football player and manager. Born in Buenos Aires, he began his playing career with River Plate in his home country before moving to England in 1978 to play for Sheff ...

(1995) * José Paulo (1995–97) * Marcelo Buarque (1997) * José Paulo (1998) * Obeid Jumaa (1998) * Ruud Doctor (2001–03) *

Tiny Ruys Martinus Johannes Maria "Tiny" Ruys (born 8 May 1957) is a Dutch football coach who has managed SV Meerssen since 2015. Career Ruys was in charge of the United Arab Emirates in 2001, and has also managed Dutch club teams Fortuna Sittard and MVV ...

(xx–2005) * Roberto Landi (2005–06) *

Remco Boere Remco Boere (born 29 October 1961) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a striker. Playing career A much-travelled forward, Boere played club football for Roda JC and ADO Den Haag in the Eredivisie. He also played for Irakl ...

(2007) *

(xx–2011) * Marcel van Buuren (2011–2013) * Félix Sánchez (2013–2020)

References

External links

QFA - U-20