Aspire in the World Fellows Book - 2022

5 4 About Aspire Academy Since opening its doors in 2004 Aspire Academy has become one of the foremost national sports academies in the world. The academy brings together world-class facilities, global sporting and academic expertise to provide young talented sportsmen the platform to excel and become the champions of the future. Aspire Academy provides its sports training and education to boys with sporting potential aged 12 to 18. Focusing on a holistic approach, the academy offers an integrated educational programme of sports development, sport science and academic learning. The core sports of the academy are football, athletics, fencing, squash and table tennis with our student-athletes and graduates representing Qatar at major sport events at both youth and senior levels. Among the highest profile successes is high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim, who is a three-time world champion and an Olympic gold medallist. While squash player Abdulla Al Tamimi continues to rise up the world rankings. As well as these core sports the academy supports athletes from other Qatari sports federations by offering them a high school education that works with their training schedules. Aspire Academy’s football programme works closely with the Qatar Football Association and the collaboration has laid the foundation for many players to turn professional. It has also continuously fed Qatar’s youth and senior national teams over the years. In 2014 the entire Qatar team that won the AFC Under-19 Asian Championship, for the first time in the country’s history, was made up of players developed at Aspire Academy. Five years later 15 of the 23-man squad that won the 2019 AFC Asian Cup for the first time in Qatar’s history were academy graduates. For Qatar’s historical appearance at the 2022 World Cup no less than 18 of the squad had passed through Aspire Academy. The academy’s sporting excellence is matched by its high academic standards and as such is accredited by the Council of International Schools. The academy embraces the principles of multiculturalism, internationalism and modern learning techniques. The balance between sport and education means that Aspire Academy produces champions in both sport and life. ASPIRE ACADEMY GLOBAL SUMMIT VISION MISSION TO BE THE WORLD’S LEADING GLOBAL SUMMIT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH FOOTBALL PLAYERS’ PERFORMANCE. DEVELOP A NETWORK TO GATHER AND SYNERGIZE KNOW-HOW FROM THE BEST WORLDWIDE EXPERTS, SETTING UP RECOMMENDATIONS FOR YOUTH FOOTBALL PLAYERS’ MANAGEMENT AND MODERN TRAINING, TO ENHANCE THEIR PSYCHO-PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE. With the goal of aspiring to inspire, the Aspire in the World Fellows now constitutes a well-established reality in the football industry, as a community of world-class experts striving for the promotion of best practice in elite football training and performance. Featuring leading football managers, coaches, and players over the last 8 years, the Aspire Academy Global Summit is the cornerstone of the Aspire in the World Fellows programme. Since its inception in 2014, the Aspire in the World Fellows underwent a progressive metamorphosis throughout our Summit editions that ultimately resulted in consolidating the foundations of our Community. Not only did the Aspire Fellows move from sharing and exchanging ideas to proactively working as a collective to generate new insights since 2017, the contribution that this Community provided to the industry was further attested by the production of 3 peer-reviewed publications on talent identification, player development, and sports business management processes. The breadth and values of the Aspire in the World Fellows rest on an in-depth consideration of knowledge sharing and working together as fundamental pillars, that received recognition and appreciation from international governing bodies such as FIFA. The fact FIFA not only embraced these but also teamed up with the Aspire in the World Fellows on the occasion of the latest 8th Aspire Academy Global Summit highlighted, once more, the impact our Community has in the football industry and what lies ahead for a long legacy beyond 2022.