Qatar's forward Almoez Ali during the 2019 AFC Asian Cup group E football match between North Korea and Qatar at the Khalifa bin Zayed stadium in al-Ain on January 13, 2018. / AFP / Giuseppe CACACE
Doha: In an unprecedented incident in football, the Asian Cup 2019 organizers in the UAE prevented the Qatari striker AlMoez Ali from retaining the ball from the game in which he scored the super hat-trick.
“We asked the organizers to give the ball to AlMoez Ali after our game with North Korea, but that did not happen. A formal complaint was filed with the AFC after this incident,” Ali Al Salat, Media Co-ordinator of Qatar footbal team, said during hugely popular "Al Majlis show" on Al Kass TV yesterday.
A player who scores a hat-trick or more usually gets to keep the ball they played with as a token gift to remember the match.
Al Moez Ali yesterday scored four times, known as super hat-trick in the region, in the match against North Korea.
The 22-year-old Al Duhail SC forward was in rampant form throughout the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Group E encounter with DPR Korea, scoring twice in the first half before adding two more after the break as Qatar recorded a 6-0 win.
Ali, who scored six times at last year’s AFC U23 Championship in China, has now notched 11 goals in his last eight appearances at AFC competition finals, and is currently topping the goal scoring chart at the AFC Asian Cup’s 17th edition in the United Arab Emirates with five as he had scored a goal against Lebanon in the first match.
