Barça’s ‘rare scam’ MF becomes Nam Tae-hee’s successor and Kim Moon-hwan’s teammate… loan transfer to Qatar team
Philippe Coutinho (Brazil), who became Barcelona’s best hitter of all time, is heading to the Asian stage.
Al Duhail announced the loan signing of Coutinho on the official website on the 9th (Korean time). It is a one-year lease for the 2023/24 season.
The club said, “In order to strengthen the first-team squad, we were able to sign Coutinho, born in 1992, from Aston Villa on a one-season loan. The player signed the contract together with the vice president.”
Al Duhail is a prestigious team in Qatar and boasts of winning the Qatar Stars League eight times. In particular, this is a team where Nam Tae-hee has been active for a long time since his days in Reqiyah (predecessor of Al Duhail) in 2012. Currently, fullback Kim Moon-hwan of the Korean national soccer team is active.
He was active for a long time from 2012 to the summer of 2019, and from the summer of 2021 to this summer. During this period, Nam Tae-hee joined Al Duhail in the team’s history by winning six league titles.
With Nam Tae-hee transferring to Yokohama F. Marinos (Japan) this summer, Al Duhail sought to strengthen the squad. Al Duhail succeeded in borrowing Coutinho, who was playing at Aston Villa, for a season.
Coutinho was a notable talent in Brazil. In the summer of 2008, Inter Milan (Italy) recognized his talent by signing the 16-year-old from the youth team of Vasco da Gama (Brazil). After being re-leased for two years, he moved to Inter Milan and began playing on the European stage. He then moved to Liverpool (England) in January 2013 and blossomed.
Coutinho showed off his attacking talent at Liverpool. He recorded 54 goals and 45 assists in 201 games for Liverpool over a five-year period through the first half of the 2017/18 season, recording nearly 100 attack points. Above all, he showed a high level of influence in the game with dribble penetration, forward passes, and direct curling shots. 바카라사이트
Accordingly, Barcelona (Spain) showed interest in Coutinho, and when he heard this news, he began to pursue a transfer, including prior contact. Liverpool rejected the offer once, but he eventually left for Barcelona in January 2018. His transfer fee was close to a whopping 135 million euros (approximately `193.1 billion won). He was the first player to be signed by Barcelona in the summer of 2017 with 222 million euros (about 317.6 billion won) in transfer fee profit earned from selling Neymar to PSG (France).
But Coutinho’s life in Barcelona was a mess. Above all, the injury lasted too long. With Barcelona, he missed a total of 73 games and 375 days. His injuries were varied, including hamstring, muscle fiber, ankle, meniscus tear, and COVID-19 infection.
In the end, Coutinho played for Barcelona on loan to Bayern Munich (Germany) and Aston Villa (England) before successfully transferring to Villa last year. The transfer fee is only 20 million euros (about 28.6 billion won). He played in only 20 games last season, and also missed two games in the new 2023/24 season due to injury after playing in two games.
Coutinho is now trying to make a comeback on the Asian stage. Al Duhail advanced to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League finals this season. Al Duhail will play its first match in the Champions League group stage against Istiklol Dushanbe (Tajikistan) on the 19th.