German Soccers Connection To Qatar, World Cup 2022 Hosts

Now that Qatar has bought won the 2022 World Cup, what do we know about this tiny nation? Well, they are the home to the Al-Jazeera television network, they will host the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, and they are known as Qataris (Qintendos would have been a tad cooler). Also, Qatar is spelled Katar in German. So theres your German word of the day.

As far as the Bundesliga goes, there are a few connections. After Felix Magath foolishly tactically decided he no longer needed central defender Marcelo Bordon at Schalke, Marcelo skipped over to Qatar and signed on with Al Rayyan. Currently, Al-Rayyan is tied for 5thin the Qatari League with the 3rdbest Goals Against Average. Meanwhile, Schalke has underperformed this season.

2004 Asian player of the year and former Bayern-bust Ali Karimi eventually left Munich to try his luck with Qatar SC. After one season there he moved over to Al-Siliyya for a reported 4.7 million euros. Karimi proved he was too big (or too homesick) for the Q League and is currently playing in his home country of Iran. A completely unreliable report mentions that the LA Galaxy were interested in signing the Asian Maradonna.

In 2004, the always dining entertaining and former Bundesliga goal champion Ailton almost became a citizen of Qatar in hopes of playing for their national team. He was set to join along with fellow Bundesliga Brazilians Dede and Leandro. A clarification of FIFA naturalization rules prevented this from happening. Apparently, you have to have some kind of link to the country for which you play. So unless those guys had Qatari grandparents or had lived there for 2 years, they were out of luck.

FC Bayern Munich will ! spend th eir winter break this year in Qatar instead of in Dubai. They will be joined in Qatar by none other than Inter Milan. No word on whether they will play a friendly rematch of last years Champions League final. They will also meet up shortly after the winter break in a Champions League game. Are these two teams starting to become best friends?

Otherwise, the pickings between the Bundesliga and Qatar are pretty slim. I imagine as Qatar magics some yet-to-be-seen climate control technology (or gets FIFA to move the World Cup to Winter) that they will be a more welcome destination for teams around the world looking to enjoy some sunshine.

Does anyone else know of any Bundesliga ties with Qatar? If so, leave comments below!

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