Doha: In a few days, the FIFA World Cup, which Qatar will host for the first time in the Arab region and the Middle East from November 20 to December 18, will begin. All players aspire to write history and record their names in the history of the tournament by scoring goals that remain immortal in the memory of fans around the world.
Four Arab teams will compete this time around – Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia.
Arab goals and scorers in the World Cup throughout its history and so far are mentioned here, as the finals of the tournament witnessed the registration of 61 Arab goals during 13 Arab participation – in 1934 (Egypt), 1970 (Morocco), 1978 (Tunisia) 1982 (Kuwait and Algeria), 1986 (Iraq, Morocco and Algeria), 1990 (UAE and Egypt), 1994 (Saudi Arabia and Morocco), 1998 (Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia), 2002 (Saudi Arabia and Tunisia), 2006 (Saudi Arabia and Tunisia), 2010 (Algeria), 2014 (Algeria), 2018 (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco).
The Arab goals in the World Cup (61) were scored by the players of 8 teams (Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Kuwait, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the UAE), which are the unique teams to reach the finals.
Morocco are the Arab team that has scored the most goals in the World Cup finals, with 14 goals they scored during their five previous participations in the competitions.
Tunisia and Algeria come in second place in the number of Arab goals, with a difference of only one goal from the Moroccan team, where each of them scored (13 goals) during five participations for Tunisia and four participations for Algeria.
For their part, Saudi Arabia scored 11 goals in five participations, followed by Egypt, who scored 5 goals in three participations, then the UAE and Kuwait with two goals each during one participation, as it is the case of Iraq, who scored only one goal.
It is expected that Arab goals will increase in the upcoming new Qatari-Arab edition of the World Cup in view of the presence of players from the teams of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia.
Throughout the history of the tournament, the stars of Arab teams in the World Cup have scored goals that remained firmly rooted in the memory of the Arab fans.
In the second place of Arab top scorers in World Cup history come 10 players. Egyptian striker Abdelrahman Fawzy was the first Arab footballer to strike twice against Hungary in the Italy-hosted 1934 edition.
In 1982 in Spain, Algerian winger Salah Assad scored a brace against Chile in Algeria’s first World Cup appearance.
Morocco’s Abderrazak Khairi struck twice against Portugal in the 1986 edition in Mexico. Then, in 1994, Saudi midfielder Fuad Anwar scored twice against the Netherlands and Morocco respectively.
Moroccan duo Abdeljalil Hadda and Salaheddine Bassir scored twice each in the France-hosted 1998 edition, and in 2014, Algerian duo Islam Slimani and Abdelmoumene Djabou scored two goals each.
Egyptian Mohamed Salah and Tunisian Wahbi Khazri scored two goals each in 2018 in Moscow.
In the third place of Arab top scorers in the World Cup come 38 players with one goal apiece.
Of all these goals, official FIFA website named Moroccan Salaheddine Bassir’s goal against Scotland in their group stage match in 1998 as one of the best Arab goals in the World Cup history.
Source: QNA
