Alkass Digital
The State of Qatar is looking forward to continuing to impress the sports world by hosting the 18th edition of the Asian Cup, AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023, after the incredible success witnessed by the entire world in organizing and hosting the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
Twenty-four teams will participate in the tournament after the expansion of the number of teams from 16 to 24 teams, which began in the 2019 edition, won by the Qatari team.
The Asian Football Confederation announced that the tournament will be held in the State of Qatar after China's withdrawal.
The Asian Cup has always seen fierce competition between the continents' teams, and it is difficult to predict the outcome of these matches. It is not just a competition between teams; it is also a competition between players to score the most goals to help lead their national team to win the title.
The Qatari striker Almoez Ali comes as the top goalscoring player in a single edition of the tournament after successfully leading the team to the title in 2019, in addition to scoring nine goals, breaking the record set by the Iranian player Ali Daei (8 goals) in a single tournament, and winning the award for the best player in the tournament.
The 27-year-old striker, who was the top scorer of the previous edition with nine goals, is looking to break the previous record of Ali Daei, the historic goal scorer of the finals with 14 goals.
The opportunity seems favorable for Almoez Ali to score goals and reach the number 15 in at least two editions of the continental tournament, especially as the 14 goals scored by Daei were over three editions of the continental tournament (1996, 2000 and 2004).
Almoez Ali is the first Arab player to top the group stage goal scorers , as well as the first Arab player to be top scorer in the history of the tournament.
He became the fifth player in the history of the Asian Cup to score a super-hat-trick (four goals) in the group stage, after Iranian player Behtash Fariba was the first to accomplish this achievement in the 1980 edition after his country's team defeated Bangladesh by seven goals to null.
Later, his compatriot Ali Daei scored a super-hat-trick against South Korea in the quarterfinals of the 1996 edition.
Almoez Ali continues his good performance with the Qatari national team after scoring 42 goals in 82 international matches, as well as his success in scoring goals in three different continental tournaments, namely the 2019 Copa America in Brazil, and the 2021 Gold Cup in the United States of America, in which he was crowned top scorer with 4 goals, as well as the 2019 Asian Cup.