Eintracht Frankfurt Youth Academy player in action with the students during the German team's visit to German International School in Doha yesterday. Pic: Abdul Basit/The Peninsula
Armin Kraaz, Director of Eintracht Frankfurt Youth Academy yesterday lauded Qatar's sporting ambitions and 'top-class facilities', saying the 2022 FIFA World Cup hosts remained on track to becoming the sports capital of the world.
“Qatar has high ambitions in sports and is moving to become sports capital of the world. Sports facilities in Qatar are unbelievable. Aspire Academy is unbelievable,” he said while talking to The Peninsula at German International School.
Eintracht Frankfurt U17 team, who are in Doha to feature at the Al Kass Cup, visited the school where the players not only had a lively interactive session with the students but also played a friendly match with them. “We are here to meet the people, the school kids. We always follow the same practice of meeting with people where we go to play matches,” Kraaz said, adding that Al Kass Cup 2017 is a well organised tournament.
To a question, he said that heavyweight competitions were going on in Al Kass Cup.
“We feel very honoured to be part of the tournament,” he said, adding that he and his team were overwhelmed with the ‘great hospitality’ of Qatari people.
Kraaz observed that Qatar’s future in sports would be 'bright'.
“A number of high-profile tournaments continue throughout the year in Qatar and Qatar is also hosting 2022 World Cup,” he added.
Principal, German International School Dirk Dillschneider termed the team’s visit to school a really good opportunity for students to learn about football and its hard training.
“Students learned from players what is needed for a team to win a match and how hard is the training,” he said, adding that German International School was promoting all kind of sports including football through round-the-year sporting activities. Among the 12 teams participating in this year’s tournament Germany is represented by two of its most storied football teams: FC Bayern and Eintracht Frankfurt.
The tournament is organised by Al Kass TV Channel and Aspire and lasts for 10 days.
“The tournament organised by Al Kass TV and Aspire is an excellent opportunity to bring youth from different cultures together, what would foster mutual dialogue and promote cross culture understanding. Al Kass Cup is another great Qatari initiative,” said the German Ambassador Hans-Udo Muzel in a statement. On the sideline of the tournament, the German Embassy in Doha organised two get-together events between the German Youth football teams and Qatari students, who are learning German in Doha.
On Monday, FC Bayern Munich visited along with students from Tarik Bin Ziyad Secondary independent School for Boys as well as students from the Tunisian school and Al Kass Television.
Frankfurt Eintracht yesterday visited the German International School in Doha.
The school students were very excited about the visit and prepared many interview questions to the players.
Coaches and players shared the value of working together as a team, showing good sportsmanship and highlighted the importance of education.
In addition they played a friendly game against the school students.
Eintracht Frankfurt was founded in 1899 and is also one of the 16 founding Members of the Bundesliga in 1963.
Eintracht Frankfurt has won the German Championship in 1959, the German Cup in 1974, 1975, 1981, 1988 and the UEFA Cup in 1980.
Football Legends such as Jay-Jay Okocha, Anthony Yeboah, Jürgen Grabowski, Charly Korbel, Alexander Schur, Uwe Bindewald, Oka Nikolov, Andreas Moller and Thomas Berthold are former players of Eintracht Frankfurt.
