Al Duhail’s Edmilson Junior and young Al Rayyan striker Ahmed al-Rawi were added to the Qatar squad yesterday to face North Korea in the World Cup qualifier next Tuesday. While 20-year-old al-Rawi – younger brother of experienced defender Bassam – has played five times for Qatar and has already scored, Edmilson has completed the eligibility to represent the Asian Champions. Born in Belgium to a Brazilian father, Edmilson arrived in Qatar in 2018 from Standard Liege to play for Duhail.
Since then, the 30-year-old has excelled at Duhail contributing 89 goals (scoring 47 goals, providing 42 assists) in 125 matches.
Rumours of his naturalisation had been circulating for a while now, and having completed six years in Qatar, Edmilson has become eligible to represent Qatar. With the paperwork finally completed, Qatar coach Marquez Lopez wasted little time calling up the left winger.
With Qatar having suffered an early blow after their loss to UAE 1-3 in their opening match of World Cup qualifiers on Thursday, Edmilson will provide a timely boss to Lopez’s men.
The loss against UAE has put them on the bottom of the six-nation group but Lopez is confident his team will make a turnaround starting with North Korea in Laos on Tuesday.
“We still have nine matches remaining and we will make a comeback. We will put our best efforts to compensate for mistakes in the opening match,” the Spaniard said. “I am confident in my players’ ability that they would be better against North Korea as we seek three points against them.”
North Korea were beaten by Uzbekistan 1-0 in their first match on Thursday. The top two teams from the group will earn direct qualification for the World Cup.