What do you know about the Qatar football squad?
Unless you’re already pushing ahead with plans to fill out the 2022 World Cup Panini sticker book, we’d guess not a lot.
But scratch beneath the surface of the 2022 World Cup hosts and you’ll find that Qatar possess one of the most interesting international squads around.
The 2014 Gulf Cup of Nations winner’s latest squad contained no less than 11 players from ten different countries of birth.
Qatar pulled off an impressive 3-2 win against Heung-Min Son’s South Korea last night, so the cosmopolitan approach is clearly paying off.
Which countries have contributed to Qatar’s current crop?
Two of the three goalkeepers were born outside of Qatar, in Senegal’s Khalifa Ababacar and Guinea’s Oumar Barry.
Centre-backs Mohammed Kasola, Ibrahim Majid and Ro-Ro were born in Ghana, Kuwait and Portugal.
French-born midfielder Karim Boudiaf, who started out at Lorient and Nancy, has scored against Northern Ireland and Russia during his international career.
There’s two Brazilians- Rodrigo Tabata and Luis Junior- who are joined by fellow South American Sebastian Soria.
Soria was born in Uruguay and played for Liverpool de Montevideo at the start of his career.
Finally there are places in the squad for Bahrain-born Ali Assadalla and midfielder Ahmed Abdul Maqsoud, who was born in Egypt.
But how are they all allowed to play for Qatar?
FIFA’s eligibility rules state that a player must have ‘lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant Association’.
In 2004 three Brazilians played for the Qatar national team despite having no clear link to the country, forcing FIFA to step in.
Have England explored the possibility of turning a load of Brazilians into Englishman?
Get on the blower to Neymar, Gareth. We’re sure he’d got a few uncles from the East End.