Youssef Benali (handballer)

Youssef Benali
Benali in 2017
Personal information
Born	(1987-05-28) 28 May 1987 (age 38) Tunis, Tunisia
Nationality	Tunisian/Qatari
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Playing position	Pivot
Club information
Current club	Al Arabi
Number	41
National team
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
	Qatar	63	(195)
Medal record World Championship 2015 Qatar Asian Championship 2018 South Korea 2022 Saudi Arabia 2024 Bahrain

Youssef Benali (born 28 May 1987) is a Tunisian-born Qatari handball player for Al Arabi and the Qatari national team.^[1][2][3][4]

He was part of the Qatar team that won silver medals at the 2015 World Championship in Qatar, the first World Championship medal for both Qatar and for any Asian team.^[5] The result was however controversial due to the many naturalized players of Qatar, of which Benali was one of them.^[6][7] According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, only four of the 17 players in the squad were native to Qatar.^[8] The practice was criticised by Austrian goalkeeper after his team's loss to Qatar in the round of 16, saying "It [felt] like playing against a world selection team" and "I think it is not the sense of a world championship."^[9] Furthermore there were claims of favourable refereering for the hosts.^[10][11][12] After the final whistle of their semifinal against Poland, the Polish players showed their discontent by ironically applauding the three referees.^[13][14]

References

1. "2015 World Championship Roster" (PDF). IHF. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
2. "2017 World Championship roster" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 August 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
3. 2019 World Men's Handball Championship roster
4. "فاليرو ريفيرا مدرب منتخبنا يعلن قائمة اللاعبين الـ 18 للمونديال". qatarhandball.com. 5 January 2019. Archived from the original on 11 April 2019. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
5. "France beat Qatar to win fifth world handball title". Gulf Times. 1 February 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
6. "Player Eligibility Code" (PDF). ihf.info. International Handball Federation. p. 5. Retrieved 29 January 2015. They shall not have played in any national team of another country in the three years preceding their first appearance in the national team in an official match.
7. "Qatar's foreign legion primed for handball date with Germany". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
8. "Falsche Fans simulieren Stimmung" [Fake fans simulate excitement]. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). Frankfurter Allgemeine. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
9. "Qatar handball team coach faces questions over foreign players". BBC. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
10. Team, Fans und Schiris gekauft? (German)
11. Handball-WM in Katar: Österreich hält sich für verpfiffen (German)
12. Österreich von Referees und Katar aus WM gekickt (German)
13. "Radość Katarczyków, Polacy z pretensjami do sędziów". przegladsportowy.pl (in Polish). 30 January 2015.
14. "Polish National Handball Team Sarcastically Applauds Officials After Controversial Loss to Qatar". thebiglead.com. 31 January 2015.

External links

• Youssef Benali at the European Handball Federation
• Youssef Benali at the Ligue Nationale de Handball (in French)