Every year I get offers from European clubs: Afif

SEOUL: Qatar’s premier playmaker and newly-minted Asian Player of the Year Akram Afif has said he ‘gets offers’ from European clubs ‘every season’.For the last five or six years the 28-year-old remains the hottest property across Asia for his dazzling runs for Qatar who successfully defended their Asian Cup title this this in February.Afif scored a hat-trick of goals in the final when Qatar beat Jordan to lift the Asian Cup trophy for the second time in succession.In an interview with fifa.com, Afif candidly admitted he remained the target of European clubs wanting the dynamic Qatari to make a move away from Doha where he plays for former Asian Champions League winners Al Sadd."There is no player who doesn’t want to play with big clubs in Europe, every year I get offers but if there is something serious they will communicate with my club to proceed with it,” Afif told fifa.com in an interview posted on their website.On Wednesday, Afif won the Asian Player of the Year award for the second time but the player with dancing dreadlocks clearly wants more."I want to make history, I want to make something big for my life, so my sons and other people will speak about me, what I did for the country, what I did for my club, what I did for myself,” he added in the interview."Yes, I’ve won (individual awards) twice but there are others who have won twice, yes I’ve won the Asian Cup twice but there are others who won it more than two times so I still haven’t done anything, nothing big."Of course, I’m proud of what I’ve achieved but I want more, I want to be better than yesterday, so I want to win for the third time, the first one to do that. I want to win the Asian Champions League with my club, there’s many things I haven’t done. I will do my best every day, starting from tomorrow,” he added.Afif said Qatar can script a turnaround in the third and decisive round of AFC qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.Qatar, the back-to-back AFC Asian Cup champions, are languishing in fourth in their six-team group, with only the top two in the phase receiving automatic World Cup qualification."It’s true that our situation in World Cup qualification is very tough. It’s not easy, this situation is different to the Asian Cup where you just play seven games and either you win the tournament or you go out in the knockout stage and that’s it,” Afif told fifa.com."The qualification for the World Cup is a long-term one, over many months and if you don’t qualify (directly) there are also play-offs, so it’s like a marathon."Of course we are not happy with the points that we have so far, as players we try our best and sometimes we face difficult moments, difficult situations, bad results, it happens."This is part of football but the most important thing is how we come back, how we can find wins and make our fans and supporters happy.”Sitting six adrift of section pacesetters IR Iran and Uzbekistan, the Maroons are approaching a critical qualification junction in the upcoming international window when they host the Uzbeks on 14 November before hopping across to Al Ain for a clash with United Arab Emirates five days later."We are trying our best, still we are not out and still we have not qualified; if we win the next two games we are back, maybe we are up to second,” Afif said."I don’t want to think too far ahead, just the next match against Uzbekistan. It’s not easy because they are a big team and we respect them. Yes, we won against them on penalties (in the quarter-finals of this year’s Asian Cup) but that was eight months ago and everything is different but we will try our best for sure.”The 27-year-old forward is exacting and driven to keep improving. Not content with his status as arguably the greatest Qatari player of all-time, Afif is determined to raise his game to yet another level."This (award) is something big for my career, to be the first Qatari player and one of three players to win twice, it’s not easy. Imagine being Messi or Ronaldo where they win awards seven or eight times, it’s not like that!"I hope this serves as an inspiration for other Qatari players to also try to win these kind of awards but they need to do a lot of things; to sacrifice, to work hard, to lead. Sometimes they will lose, they will fail, they will get fans angry and receive negative comments but they need to stay strong, try harder and just to work every day.”Turning 28 next month, Afif is arguably at the peak of his powers with the vision, pace, off-the-ball movement, technique and finishing still as good as they’ve ever been. Having continually rebuffed moves abroad, there are hints that he may now see the next logical step towards becoming one of the continent’s all-time greats is testing himself at a higher level.