It’s not every day you travel to Madrid for a football development tour, it’s not every day you face Atletico Madrid in a competitive match and it’s not every day a goalkeeper scores the opening goal – but that is exactly what happened to E-Sports FC’s Omar Alashkar yesterday.
Omar was part of the squad which travelled from Dubai to Madrid to take part in a week of football and cultural activities in conjunction with Trans World Educational Experiences.
During the trip, E-Sports took part in the Torneo Semana Santa, a tournament bringing together some of the best young sides in the city for a day of high intensity matches, and drawn into E-Sports’ group was none other than Atletico Madrid.
With injuries causing problems for the E-Sports squad, goalkeeper Omar left his gloves on the bench and spent the match against Atleti operating outfield rather than between the posts.
The match started brightly with both sides looking to find their feet in the match. It was with 20 minutes on the clock that E-Sports made the breakthrough in extraordinary fashion.
After being awarded a corner, the ball was swung in to the Atletico penalty area by defender Niko. An initial clearing header found goalkeeper Omar in space 8 yards from goal and with a finish more likely to be associated with a striker than a keeper the ball was smashed into the roof of the Atletico net.
Speaking of the goal, Alashkar said: “It feels great, it’s my first goal for the club. I’m more used to playing at the other end of the pitch but it is really good to have scored against a team as well-known as Atletico Madrid!”
As well as their match against Atleti, E-Sports toured the world-famous Santiago Bernabeu, attended Atletico’s first team match against Real Sociedad, trained at Real Madrid’s training complex and tasted some local cuisine in Madrid city centre.
A huge well done to Omar from everyone here at Gulf Youth Sport!