Balanty challenge participant Amr Raslan won the title of the king of penalties which concluded in Aspire Zone under the auspices of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, the Qatar Stars League, the Qatar Football Association and Aspire Zone Foundation.

The competition took for eight days with tough and nail biting drama throughout the final.

The Egyptian Salah Abdel Hay won the title of best goalkeeper. The winner Amr Raslan received a prize of thirty thousand Qatari Riyals while the best goalkeeper Salah Abdel Hay received ten thousand Qatari Riyals.

At the end of the competition, the Qatari star and former player from Al Rayyan Mohamed Al-Suwaidi who is also the tournament general manager honored the winners with the prize money.

The tournament witnessed tough confrontations between the winner Amr Raslan and the rest of the contenders, in particular the top five who qualified to the finals: Amr Raslan, Waleed Hassan, Jameel Shami, Ali Al-Teiri and Alaa Nasser.

With the launching of the finals, Jameel Al-Shami lost his penalty, followed by Alaa Nasser and Ali Al-Teiri, for the competition to be narrowed down to between Amr Raslan and Waleed Hassan who lit up the competition with their enthusiasm and style.

Both contenders had a long round of penalties as they reached six turns each before Waleed missed his last shot and granted the title to Egyptian Amr Raslan who scored a total of 21 penalties during the entire tournament.

After the end of the competition Mohamed Al-Suwaidi expressed his extreme happiness for the technical levels exhibited and performances during this second edition of Balanty challenge. 

He said: “The tournament was very successful and exceeded the expectations due to the spectators’ interaction.” Al-Suwaidi also thanked the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy for their full support during this tournament.”

He also added: “I would like to thank their efforts in building bridges with the local community and spreading football culture to everyone.  We hope for continued support towards such football events which will contribute to the legacy of football in Qatar as well as the improvement of this sport in general. Also I would like to thank Qatar Football Association, Qatar Stars League and Aspire Zone for their support of the Balanty challenge competition. I would like also to thank Aspire Zone who have such great sports facilities.”

 Al-Suwaidi pointed out that they started already thinking and planning for the next version of the tournament, looking for new concepts to introduce. “In the first version we invited the international super star Raul Gonzales to take the kick-off penalty, while the kick-off of this second version was in a special confrontation between Al Dawri & Al Kass Channel and Al-Rayyan Channel. We will be seeking a more unique kick-off for the next version.” He added.

From his side the winner Amr Raslan expressed his joy and happiness at winning, indicating that he exerted lots of efforts with lots of training to achieve such victory, taking into consideration that he lost last year’s title in the final stages.

The Balanty champion said: “I performed well during the previous tournament but I wasn’t lucky in the decisive penalty which gave the title to the Tunisian Badr Bin Ghaliah.”

Amr added: “I am an amateur football player, but I am good in handling penalties. I worked and trained hard and a lot during the previous period especially after finishing second in last year’s tournament. Thank Allah I was the winner this time and gained the title. Such a tournament is an amazing event which allows everyone to participate and feel exactly like the top players inside the crowded stadiums. I would like to thank the organizing committee for their huge success and the amazing organization of this edition, hoping that it will continue during the coming years with the increase in the number of participants. Doha now is the capital of international sport and everyone is practicing sports.”