Akram Afif

Akram Hassan Afif Yahya Afif is a Qatari left winger born in Doha on 18 November 1996 who plays for Al Sadd and the Qatar national team. He has won the Asian Footballer of the Year award twice, in 2019 and 2023, and played a central part in both of Qatar's AFC Asian Cup titles. ^{1 2 3}

Afif graduated from the Aspire Academy in June 2015. He had represented Sevilla at the 2013 Al Kass International Cup and later joined Villarreal's youth team. His senior career began in Belgium with Eupen, where he scored on his debut against Eendracht Aalst on 19 January 2015. On 8 May 2016 he rejoined Villarreal on a permanent deal, becoming the first Qatari-born signing in La Liga history; he was loaned to Sporting de Gijón, where he made his La Liga debut on 21 August 2016, and then back to Eupen. ¹

In January 2018 Villarreal loaned him to Al Sadd; the move became permanent in July 2020 on a five-year deal. In the 2018–19 season he scored 26 goals with 15 assists in 22 league games as Al Sadd won the league, and he was named the Qatar Football Association's best player. In 2023–24 he again drove a league title campaign, with 26 goals and 11 assists in 22 matches, finishing as the league's top scorer. ¹

Afif scored the only goal of the 2014 AFC Under-19 Championship final against North Korea, giving Qatar the title. He made his senior debut in September 2015. At the 2019 Asian Cup he set a tournament record with 10 assists as Qatar lifted the trophy. At the 2023 Asian Cup, hosted by Qatar, he scored twice in the opening match against Lebanon, the winner against Tajikistan, the winner against Palestine in the round of 16, and a goal and an assist in the semi-final against Iran, before scoring a hat-trick of penalties in the final against Jordan; he finished as the tournament's top scorer with eight goals. ¹

Afif was born in Doha. The English article describes him as of Yemeni heritage: his mother Fayza is Yemeni, of the Yafa tribe, and his father Hassan Afif, born in Moshi in Tanzania, played for Simba in Tanzania, for Horseed in Somalia and for the Somalia national team, and later played and coached in Qatar. His brother Ali Afif is also a professional footballer. Afif learned Spanish for his move to Sevilla. None of this is recorded as a statement of his own religious affiliation, and none of the sources names one. ¹

None of the sources records a religious affiliation for Akram Afif, and Wikidata carries no religion value for him. The museum therefore records his affiliation as unknown; see the faith note in his data record. ^{1 3}

• The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.
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