Leeds United must use Aspire links to swoop on national hero Akram Afif

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Not many people are giving Qatar any hope of impressing on the pitch at the World Cup in 2022. However, they showed glimpses of their improvement this week. Qatar visited the FIFA-ranked eighth best team in the world in Switzerland and, amazingly, won.

A 1-0 win in Lugano came against a Swiss side that contained the likes of Granit Xhaka, Xherdan Shaqiri and Fabian Schar.

It was a testament to Qatar’s improvement as a nation and the goalscorer Akram Afif was the national hero.

The Al-Sadd attacker has been in fine form for his club as well this season, scoring 11 goals in 10 league games in the Qatari Stars League. The 22-year-old is a product of the Aspire Academy, which is where Leeds United come in.

Leeds have a unique link with the Aspire foundation. Ivan Bravo is a director at Leeds and the head of Aspire’s academy. The partnership has seen Leeds play youth tournaments in Doha and send Yosuke Ideguchi to Aspire-owned Spanish side Cultural Leonesa.

Afif is clearly looking like the standout player from the Aspire Academy. He is currently owned by Villarreal and is out on loan. But if Leeds are to try and get the biggest benefit from this deal then Afif is clearly it.

When the World Cup rolls into Qatar in 2022, Afif will surely be the poster boy for the host nation. Leeds United should certainly look at bringing him to West Yorkshire before that. He could be a sleeper hit for Leeds both on, and off, the pitch.