KARACHI, Sept 16: A 22-member Karachi United Football Club squad leaves for Qatar early on Sunday to play against various Qatar clubs, youth teams and most significantly Aspire Academy there.

Karachi United FC was invited to tour Qatar with its academy team to train and play matches versus Aspire Academy, Al Sadd and other local clubs. Keeping its focus on youth development, the club has previously also toured Manchester United and Charlton Athletic Academy.

Head coach Adeel Rizki said: “The reason why this tour to Qatar is even more special than previous ones is because we are playing a fixture against Aspire Academy. They recently defeated Manchester United in the final of the Milk Cup in Ireland and regularly host the best academies in the world such as Barcelona, AC Milan and Bayern Munich so it is an opportunity to test Pakistani talent against the best. Our other matches include the likes of Al Sadd whose senior team regularly play in the Asian Champions League so it should be a great learning opportunity for us.”

The squad of 19 under-16 players also includes five selected from the Karachi United Football Foundation’s (KUFF) Centres of Excellence. KUFF is a not-for-profit organisation and its Centres of Excellence have been operating across Karachi’s inner-city areas since June 2010 with the objective of community development and social uplift of youth through football, education, vocational training and health awareness.

Karachi United will play five matches over nine days whilst in Qatar.

Squad: Ali Raza, Atif Sachak, Benedict Plant, Changaiz Shafi, Erhaan Ahmed, Hassan Saad (vice captain), Iskander Pataudi, Jibraan Fawad, Kareem Kerai (captain), Mehmood Ali Shah, Noman Tahir, Omar Akbar, Radif ul Hassan, Rafey Salahuddin, Salman Raheem, Shabbir Habib, Shaezer Razi, Zaid Yahya and Yasir Siddiqui.

Officials: Adeel Rizki (head coach), Arshad Jamal (coach) and Arshian Ali (manager).