Football move to Qatar
World champion Draxler decides on the lucrative dead end
As of: 3:33 p.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes
Julian Draxler is about to move to Qatar
Ex-national player Julian Draxler is about to move to Qatar to Al-Ahli SC. The transfer fee for Draxler, including bonus payments, is 15 million euros. The former Schalke player no longer plays a role at Paris St. Germain.
Julian Draxler became world champion with Germany in 2014 at a young age. But that didn’t lead to a really great career. Now his chapter in Paris ends because Qatar is shopping for itself. That has an aftertaste.
Julian Draxler is apparently moving to Qatar. According to Sky, the 2014 world champion will sign a two-year contract with Al-Ahli from Doha, with a transfer fee of around 20 million euros. The national player is scheduled to arrive in Doha by Saturday at the latest. The medical check is planned for the weekend. The transfer window in Qatar is open until Monday.
Last season, the former Schalke player was loaned out to Benfica Lisbon. Draxler became champions with the Portuguese, but only played 18 games and scored two goals. After ankle surgery in February, he was no longer used. In total, he was only on the pitch for the full 90 minutes once.
His advisor Roger Wittmann had already said at the end of August: “Julian has an offer from the Middle East, which is very big. But he also has a family issue to deal with at the moment. So I don’t know if he’ll do it now.” And further: “If a player can go there today, he should do it. I would recommend it to every player. It’s something completely different than China or Russia.”
Draxler’s new coach is Nebojsa Jovovic. Stand now. The start of the season doesn’t bode well for the Montenegrin
Quelle: picture alliance/NurPhoto/Noushad Thekkayil
As various media reported, the insignificant league was not necessarily Draxler’s first choice. A move to the English club Crystal Palace was also on the cards. The deal didn’t go through two weeks ago on the last day of the European transfer window.
The transfer fee apparently significantly exceeds Draxler’s market value
In 2017, Draxler moved from VfL Wolfsburg to Paris for 36 million euros, where, among other things, he became French champion four times, but was never an undisputed regular player. The now 29-year-old played 131 league games for PSG, in which he was substituted on 54 times and 46 times.
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Draxler played 58 international matches for the national team, scoring seven goals. His greatest success was the 2014 World Cup triumph in Brazil, to which the then 20-year-old was able to contribute little on the field. Draxler only played one game, he came on as a substitute at the end of the legendary semi-final in a 7-1 (5-0) win against Brazil.
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National football team
So now Qatar. Draxler is not alone there. His long-time PSG teammate Marco Verratti (30) also moved from Paris to Qatar this summer; his club is called Al-Arabi. He brought in a transfer fee of 45 million euros for the French champions, and with bonus payments it could even be 50 million. become euros. Both players now go into the desert above market value. According to transfermarkt.de, Verratti’s is 40 million euros, Draxler’s is just six million euros.
This has an aftertaste because the Qatari state owns PSG. Because of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules, according to which income and expenses must have a certain balance, big clubs are always looking for tricks to comply with these regulations. One way is high transfer revenues.
“I was happy when I was home again”
The whole thing should be financially worthwhile for Draxler, but in terms of sport, the Qatar Stars League, in which his new club lost all of the first three games of the season and is second to last in the table of twelve, is a dead end. For many years, old stars who can no longer find a top club in Europe and have let their careers peter out have been coming here. Most recently, alongside Verratti, there are former FC Bayern players James Rodriguez and Philippe Coutinho. The way back to a well-known club from here has rarely been successful.
Some German players have also tried their hand at the luxurious life of golf (and golf). Stefan Effenberg and Mario Basler once ended their careers here, and Pierre-Michael Lasogga went to Qatar at the age of 27. In 2022 he returned to Germany and was initially unemployed. The 31-year-old is now playing for the Schalke 04 reserves in the Regionalliga West.
Pro: At least Mario Basler looks into the camera
Source: picture-alliance/Augenklick/KUNZ/Bernhard Kunz
Basler’s involvement in Qatar was 20 years ago and is probably no longer a real benchmark for today’s conditions. Nevertheless, the final word should belong to him, in which he remembered those eight months in an “AZ” interview: “Yes, there was decent money. But the Qataris only kicked in the game, the referees had no idea about blowing and blowing – terrible. Nobody was interested in football anyway, we often had 1,000 to 2,000 spectators (…) I was happy when I was back home.”
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