Abdullah and Tarek: two Qataris playing for Cultural Leonesa
The Qatar based Aspire Academy stepped in in December 2015 and helped bail the club out of it's dire financial position.
Fortunes have changed at Cultural Leonesa since the Aspire Academy stepped in back in December 2015 to bail the football club out of their dire financial difficulties.
The Qatari owners have established three key objectives at Cultural following similar ventures with Eupen in Belgium and Linz Austria. They underwrote the 1.7 million euro debt and began to put together a squad with the goal of securing promotion initially to Spain's second tier. Another part of the venture was to bring young Qatari talent to Leon as part of player development.
Last season the likes of Tameen, Sultán, Madibo and Almoez featured regularly in the Cultural first team and this season Abdullah and Tarek are the chosen players to wear the white shirt.
“I came to León to improve as a player and to help the team”, affirms Abdhullah as the team prepare for their Copa del Rey second leg against Real Madrid at the Bernabéu. The main priority for the Cultural supporters is securing a return to Spain's Liga 123 and at present the club are on a fast track to doing so with the side unbeaten in the current campaign and holding an eight point lead at the top of the regional group III of the competition.
Tarek is hoping to break through to the first team claiming: “Spanish football is different to to that in Qatar and more oportuinites arise there for younger players”. Other Qatari player sinvolved at the club include Moufak and Muneer who currently play with Cultural B team in their drive to make a return to the spanish Tercera divisoion
