The Qatar and Jordan teams are competing in the final of the Asian Cup at the Lusail stadium, which hosted the grand final of the 2022 World Cup between Argentina and France.
The host and defending continental title beat Jordan 1-0, the great revelation of the tournament, with a penalty goal from its scorer
Akram Afif
, who surprised with an incredible celebration.
At 21 minutes into the match, the hairy number 11 footballer and great figure of Qatar, took charge of a penalty and his right hand ended up in the net to the delirium of the local public, eager to lift a trophy that he already lifted four years ago in Abu Dhabi.
But in addition to opening the scoring, Afif finished with a magical performance.
The former Villarreal, now at Al Sadd in his country, moved his hands towards one of his legs and pulled out from under his socks what appeared to be a figurine with his image.
Afif then kissed the ring finger of his left hand and that's when the best part came: he approached the camera and with a conjurer's movement turned the figurine into a symbol similar to the letter S, without it being clear who it was dedicated to.
The end of the story has television as its protagonist, which broke one of the codes of magic: the slow motion repetition reveals how the soccer player "transformed" the cards, activating some type of mechanism with one of his fingers.
THE WIZARD AFIF!
Qatar's number 11 took charge of the penalty they committed, made it 1-0 against Jordan and celebrated with a trick at the #AsianCup2023.
đź“ş Watch the Asian Cup on #StarPlusLA pic.twitter.com/hZNBFsYBbm
— SportsCenter (@SC_ESPN) February 10, 2024
A while later, good old Afif had to be taken off on a stretcher in what appeared to be a serious injury, but he ended up recovering on the side of the field and re-entered the field of play, in his second "trick" of the night in Middle East.
The game went to halftime with the partial victory of Qatar, which is close to becoming Asian champion again thanks to a great performance by its magician, Afif.