Afghanistan’s beach football player Hazrat Gul Baran has been signed to play with a Brazilian beach football club in São Paulo until the end of the Brazilian 2013 league.
Baran, 25, played his first match for the team last week, according to Afghan officials.
He was spotted playing for Afghanistan during the FIFA Beach Football World Cup qualifiers in Qatar in January. According to officials, Baran had invitations from the French and Iranian clubs, but he preferred to play in the Brazilian league.
It is first time that an Afghan has been signed to a foreign club in beach football.
“It’s a great pride for Afghanistan that one of our players is signed and playing for a Brazilian club. I think it’s also good for the national beach football team,” said the Afghanistan Football Federation Secretary Seyed Reza Aghazadeh.
Baran performed well in the January FIFA tournament, despite Afghanistan failing to qualify for the World Cup.
Afghanistan started out strong in the Asian qualifiers, beating Qatar 7-3. But it lost its following three matches to Oman, Australia and Bahrain, finishing 11th out of 16 countries.
The FIFA Beach Football World Cup is played every two years. Russia won in 2011 and Brazil placed second, followed by Portugal and El Salvador.
Tolonews
Tags: Afghan, Beach, Brazilian, Club, football, Player, signs, to
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.