Qatar 2022: Pele visit in 1973 helps tiny Persian Gulf nation catch football fever as they start one-year countdown clock to World Cup hosting duties
- The Middle Eastern nation prepares to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup and is ready to surprise on the global stage, Qatari football historian Matthias Krug says
- Krug’s book, ‘Journeys on a Football Carpet’, details how the Qatari football team have regularly overachieved at big moments and tournaments through the decades
In 1973, Brazilian soccer legend Pele visited Doha Stadium in Qatar along with Santos FC, and it’s pretty clear the trip had an impact on the country’s youth, said Matthias Krug, the author of Journeys on a Football Carpet, a non-fiction book about Qatar’s football history.
“Just eight years later, a young Qatari side was making headlines halfway across the world,” said Krug, who was born and raised in Qatar. “They shocked Brazil 3-2 in the quarter finals and England 2-1 in the semi-finals to reach the final of the 1981 Fifa World Youth Championships in Australia.”
“If you look at Qatar’s history as a football nation, they have regularly surprised the football world on the biggest stage despite the country’s small size, which I believe is something that the team is working hard to do again at Qatar 2022.”
Krug added this was a side who were now used to playing against the best, and some of their recent results in 2021, which includes wins over Luxembourg and El Salvador and draws against Ireland and Panama, show the squad can compete internationally.