Mayo football legend making sporting waves in Qatar

Qatar’s Lusail Sports Club has achieved a historic milestone when they achieved promotion to the Doha Bank Stars League, which is the top flight of football in Qatar.

Roundfort native and League of Ireland legend Ciaran Kelly is the technical director of Lusail Sports Club, and he explained what the season meant to him having been involved with the club for the last nine years.

Kelly said Lusail SC have had a fantastic season, and the club has been making steady progress in recent years.

“It has been a fantastic season, and this is our seventh year participating in the Qatari Second Division. Back in 2019 we gained promotion from the Third Division after the club was approved to play in the second tier. In our third season in the Second Division, we finished third, and we have been there or thereabouts pushing for promotion ever since,” he said.

“However, last season we didn’t have a great campaign, and that forced us to have a look at the whole model of the club and we ended up recruiting hungry young players, who are very talented and ambitious and who wanted to go and be successful. Luckily our hard work paid off this week.

“The Qatari League has certain criteria: you are allowed five professional players all under the age of 27, two players the league gives you, four players who have lived in Qatar for more than four years, and then the rest are local players.

“Our team would be aligned with a budget of a League of Ireland team. Next season we will be in the top division, and we will be facing Al Rayyan who have Alexsandar Mitrovic, and Al Sadd who have Roberto Firmino, and these are high profile players.”

Kelly is living the dream, as he explained.

“This is what you always dream of, playing against the best players in the best stadiums and this is now where we will be competing next season. We played in a couple of World Cup stadiums this season due to the ongoing conflict and regional issues. Next season will get to play in some of those top stadiums and that is something to look forward to.”

The club changed its name ahead of the World Cup in Qatar.

“For the first two years the team was called ‘The Pearl’ and that is a landmark area here. When we won the Third Division we were still called The Pearl, and then the Qatari League decided that we needed to change our name to Lusail SC ahead of the World Cup 2022 due to the iconic Lusail capital of Qatar.

"With one of the World Cup stadiums being in Lusail it was a fantastic opportunity, and we snatched at that opportunity. At the time I was the head coach of The Pearl team and then we gained promotion to the Second Division, and after that I moved to an upstairs role and took up the position of technical director of Lusail in 2019. I am currently not doing any coaching, and my involvement is more off the pitch than on the pitch.

“It is all about building club strategies. We have four pillars at the club, and they are the first team, 11 youth teams and they compete in the QFA Leagues, an academy with 45 competitive teams, a development programme and a schools programme. In total we have around 1,200 players, both men and women, playing football at the club.”

Some of Ciaran’s former clubmates at Ballinrobe Town AFC and friends visited him at the 2022 World Cup.

“It was good to get some of the lads over for the 2022 World Cup as I had been telling them how amazing this place is. It was good for them to come over and see it for themselves, and to experience what we do on a day-to-day basis as well.”

Ciaran explained that Lusail SC had a strong platform in Division Two at an early juncture during this season.

“We led the league table at an early juncture, but that was due to the work that we had put in over the last two to three seasons. We have been playing good football and we are a well organised team and our staff also work very hard. We have a style of play, and we are also well organised at set-pieces.

“Before this season, we were lacking those one or two players that could ignite the team. We recruited well for this season, we signed Amir Roustaei who is an Iranian international and he was the shining light for us this season with goals.

“We managed to maintain top spot as the season progressed.”

Ciaran said the club is under no illusions about next season’s step up to the Qatar Stars League.

“There is a bit of gap between the top flight and the second division, but that is the same across all of the top leagues in the world. We will enter the Stars League on merit and we will have a competitive team and do things the right way. We are under no illusions; however, we are not afraid of the challenge.”

The outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East was a very worrying time for some of the players, as Ciaran explained.

“Our first team was operational 24 hours after the first attack. The rest of our programmes were down for three weeks (youth) and four weeks (academy). There were uncertain times, and everybody was worried about it, especially the international players from around the region.

"Everyone was concerned about their own family and friends back in their own home countries. One thing I have to say, though ,is that we did feel safe here in Qatar, with the way the country was protected.

“There were multiple times a week that it was targeted, however, at the same time we did feel safe.”

The Roundfort native said that winning a league title is a special occasion and that it is important for the club to enjoy these moments.

“The Stars League will start in mid-August. Obviously, we will enjoy the celebrations this week, and the players will then go on their vacations in the middle of May and then they will report back for pre-season camp on July 1.

“Anytime you win a league title or a trophy it is a special time, and it is important to celebrate those moments as sometimes the thought process might be to move onto the next step. Winning is hard and difficult and that’s why it is very important that you can enjoy the success. We have lots of events planed for this week with the trophy, and we will wrap up at the end of this week with a big carnival and community day for all sections of the club and their families.”

Ciaran has met some famous people during his time in Lusail.

“David Beckham was here for a national sports day, Arsene Wegner spent a day here with Lusail and that was an amazing experience to be in his presence. Samuel Eto also trained with our first team about five or six seasons ago. Tim Cahill is also a regular visitor here as he is the technical director at the Qatar FA and is also chief sports officer at Aspire Academy. Gianni Infantino (FIFA president) is also a regular guest in Lusail as well, and in 2022 we played some seven aside games with the boss of World football when he visited here leading up to the World Cup.

“The one thing about building an international football academy in Qatar is also having a network and contacts. The programme that we have developed here has created a name for itself. We would have a lot of professional players and coaches here in Lusail and a lot of their children are in our academy programme. It is quite unique when you walk by our base on an evening and you could bump into some of the stars of the game, including the likes of Javi Martinez, who plays with Al Bidda, and is a former World Cup winner with Spain.”

The Mayo’s man has long-term ambitions for Lusail SC.

“The long-term goal when we transitioned into Lusail SC was to develop a football club that could play in the World Cup stadium, and we are now one step closer to that.

“What we are also doing is improving and increasing our fan engagement and connecting with the community.

“The one thing that we can guarantee is that the environment that our players, coaches and parents are involved in is fun, happy, and a safe place for players to develop. That’s what makes this club so special.”