As part of coverage of the league championship that went by, the Qatar Stars League website analyses all 12 teams’ performance in the 2021-2022 season QNB Stars League, which witnessed strong and exciting competition right till the final week.

 

AL SADD

Al Sadd did an encore by winning the 2021-2022 season QNB Stars League for the second season in a row.

More significantly, the team did it with an unbeaten record in both seasons.

Al Sadd finished with 62 points (20 victories and two draws). They had a goal difference +56, having scored 80 goals and conceded 24).

It may be noted that The Wolves lifted the coveted league shield in the 2020-2021 season with 60 points (from 19 victories and three draws).

Al Sadd, who were in the lead position with 28 points at the end of the tournament’s first leg with 28 points (nine victories and one draw from 10 matches), thus raised the bar for themselves.

Coach factor

Al Sadd started the season after renewing the contract with Spanish great Xavi Hernandez, who moved to Al Sadd as a player in 2015 from FC Barcelona.

Xavi led the side admirably well until he left to take over the coaching reins of FC Barcelona. The high-profile encounter against Al Duhail in Week 9 was his last match. And Javi Gracia continued from where his compatriot left off as Al Sadd annexed the league title following their 8-2 victory over Al Ahli in Week 19 and were crowned as the champions at the end of their 1-1 draw against Al Duhail in Week 20.

Season’s deals

Al Sadd started the season by retaining most of their professional players – Spanish midfielder Santi Cazorla, Algerian striker Baghdad Bounedjah, South Korean midfielder Jung Woo-Young and Brazilian defensive midfielder Guillerme Torres.

Ghanaian forward Andre Ayew was signed to replace South Korean Nam Tae-Hee.

Ayew is the team’s top scorer

Ayew was Al Sadd’s top scorer in the 2021-2022 season QNB Stars League with 15 goals. He was also the tournament’s second-best top scorer, after Al Duhail’s Michael Olunga.

Akram Afif, who bagged the Best Player Award in the Qatar Football Association Awards for the 2021-2022 season, and Bounedjah followed suit with 14 and 13 goals respectively.

This was the third time that Akram was being adjudged the best in QFA Awards, after the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons.

Many other players excelled for Al Sadd during the season, most notably Cazorla, Torres and Jung among foreign professional players and Hassan Al Haydous, Boualem Khoukhi, Rodrigo Tabata, Ali Asad, and goalkeepers Sadd Al Dossari and Meshaal Barshim among local professional players.