Doha, January 03 (QNA) - Portuguese coach Eledio Vale has announced the Qatar U-23 national team's 23-man squad for the upcoming AFC U-23 Asian Cup, to be held in Saudi Arabia in 2026. The squad's final training session was held this morning, and the team will depart Doha for Jeddah this evening.

  This will mark Qatar's sixth appearance in the continental tournament's seventh edition. The Maroons are aiming to surpass their previous best achievement of a third-place finish, which they secured in 2018.

  The selected players include goalkeepers Amir Hassan, Abubaker Mohammed, and Ali Ghulais. The outfield players are Tahsin Mohammed, Al Hashemi Al Hussain, Ahmed Reyad, Anas Abdulsalam, Ayuob Alaoui, Abdullah Mujeeb, Saifeddine Hassan, Hassan Al Ghareeb, Rashid Abdulaziz, Abdulaziz Mohammed, Jassem Al Sharshani, Fares Saeed, Mubarak Shanan, Mohammed Khaled, Marwan Sherif, Moath Ibrahim, Mahdi Al Mejaba, Mohammed Suraj, Nabil Irfan, and Mostafa Al Sayed.

  Qatar has been drawn into Group B, where they will face the tournament's two-time champions -Japan- as well as Syria and the United Arab Emirates. The seventh edition of the championship will feature 16 teams divided into four groups of four, with the tournament kicking off on January 6, 2026. The top two teams from each group will advance to the knockout stages, culminating in the final on January 25, 2026. (QNA)