Country: Qatar

Coach: Chouaib Kafi

Key Players: Amine Bannour (Right Back), Marko Matic (Left Back), Darko Stanic (Goalkeeper)

Road to Qualification: Tournament hosts

History in Tournament: 1997: DNP, 2002: 1st, 2007: DNP, 2010: 2nd, 2011: 6th, 2012: 3rd, 2013: 7th, 2014: 2nd, 2015: 8th 

Overview: 

Al-Sadd’s history is plenty of glory, not only in Qatar but also in Asia and internationally. They accumulate nine Qatari Handball League titles and have won the Asian Club League Handball Championship five times, apart from three GCC Cups and seven Emir Cups – a record that no other Asian team holds. Al-Sadd can also take pride in their results at the most important worldwide handball club competitions, as they claimed the title at the 2000 Handball Club World Cup and the 2002 IHF Super Globe. Apart from that, they hanged around their necks two Super Globe silver medals – 2010 and 2014 – and were bronze medallists in 2012. 

But the recent times have not been as delightful for Al-Sadd. After a disappointing campaign at the last IHF Super Globe – they lost their three matches to rank 8th – the hosts intend to prove their strength this year. To secure a good result they signed Tunisia right back Amine Bannour, who scored 14 goals at the Rio 2016 Olympics and 20 at the last IHF Men’s World Championship in Qatar. It will be the second time for the 26-year old player to represent Al-Sadd at the Super Globe – he was their top scorer at the 2014 edition with 30 goals.

Two Bannour teammates in Tunisia team have also joined the Qatari club; the 23-year old centre back Mohamed Soussi, who scored 11 goals at the last Olympic Games and the 33-year old line player Sobhi Saied, who contributed five. Other late incorporation to Al-Sadd is the 30 year-old left back Klemen Cehte, who played for his national team Slovenia at the Qatar 2015 World Championship and recorded 11 goals.

Darko Stanic and Marko Matic are two important players for the structure created by the Algerian-born coach Chouaib Kafi – who led Qatar to rank 4th at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games.  Stanic is a 37-year old Serbian goalkeeper that participated at the 2015-2016 EHF Champions-League with the German club Rhein-Neckar Lowen, while the Croatian-born left back Marko Matic played the European competition for HC Metalurg (MKD) and scored 28 goals.

Chouaib Kafi is expecting a good performance of his goalkeepers, as he can also count on Rasheed Yusuff, a young prospect who finished the Brazil 2015 Men’s Junior World Championship with a 31% save rate. 

In the quarter-finals, Al-Sadd will meet Sydney Uni Handball Club on September 5 at 8pm (QAT time). The Australian side beat them 21:20 in the same stage of the 2015 IHF Super Globe. Will the hosts be able to take revenge?

Official Website/Social Media:

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IHF Social Media:

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