Khalfan Ibrahim

Al Sadd

Early career

Khalfan started out with Al-Arabi (his father's club) and was signed by Al-Sadd in 2004. He assimilated into Al Sadd's first team at the age of 17 in March 2005, under head coach Doru Isac scoring against Al-Shamal.

2005–06

2005–06 was a significantly improved season for him when he scored goals in the Qatar League, Crown Prince Cup and Asian Champions League.

2006–07

His performance in 2006–07 played a part in achieving the Asian Player of The Year title. He scored 5 goals in Al Sadd's start to the league campaign and then was a crucial member of the Asian Games gold medal-winning Qatar team. However, in an Olympic qualifying match against Bahrain in February 2007, he got himself injured and was laid-off for more than one year, missing most of Al Sadd's season.

2007–08

He wasn't able to play in the 2007–08 league season due to injury as Al-Gharafa overtook Al-Sadd for the title.

2008–09

He returned from injury in the revamped 2008–09 season. He scored 8 goals in Al-Sadd's first 6 games.

2010–11

Khalfan won the 2011 AFC Champions League with Al Sadd. Khalfan delivered an inspired performance against Suwon in the semi-final second leg to keep the club's hopes alive. He featured in the final against Jeonbuk which was won 4–2 on penalties. He assisted Keita by providing an accurate cross which Keita volleyed into the net, as well as forcing a Jeonbuk defender to head the ball…

Youth teams

Khalfan first played for Qatar's youth teams, scoring 6 goals in the under-17 Gulf Cup held in 2003, helping Qatar finish runners-up in the process. Qatar finished runner-up and Khalfan finished second in the scorers list with 6 goals. He was part of the Qatar squad which played at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Peru, scoring one goal in the match against the mighty Netherlands. He and his young teammates battled their more illustrious opponents to a 2–2 stalemate at halftime but eventually lost out 3–5. It was a performance which caught the eye and contributed greatly to his Asian Player of the Year title. In the same year he played in the West Asian Games. Qatar's campaign was unsuccessful despite Khalfan scoring two goals. In all the above tournaments he played with a number of his teammates who along with him were to become the backbone of Al-Sadd and the senior national team.

Senior team

After his stellar performances at the youth level, he and his teammates broke into the Annabi's senior team. Their first major triumph was the Asian Games title won in front of home fans, with Khalfan scoring 2 goals. He scored two superb goals against Bangladesh in their Asian Cup 2007 qualifying match. He then took part in his first Arabian Gulf Cup, where Qatar couldn't defend their title despite Khalfan scoring one goal against Bahrain. In 2008, he played a prominent part in Qatar's World Cup qualifying campaign scoring against Asia's No 1…

Club

As of 28 August 2022

1Includes Emir of Qatar Cup and Qatar Crown Prince Cup. 2Includes Qatari Stars Cup. 3Includes AFC Champions League. 4Includes FIFA Club World Cup and Sheikh Jassem Cup.

International goals

Scores and results list Qatar's goal tally first.

Notable matches

Qatar vs. Bangladesh (Asian Cup 2007 Qualifiers) – First International match, scored twice. Al-Sadd vs Al-Rayyan – Scored two breath taking goals in a league match in 2007. Qatar vs. Indonesia (World Cup 2014 Qualifiers) – 3–2 win, scored once and assisted twice.

Al Sadd

Qatar Stars League: 2003–04, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2012–13 Emir of Qatar Cup: 2005, 2007, 2014 Qatar Crown Prince Cup: 2006, 2007, 2008 Sheikh Jassem Cup: 2007, 2014 Qatari Stars Cup: 2010 AFC Champions League: 2011 FIFA Club World Cup Bronze Medalist: 2011 Individual

Asian Player of the Year: 2006 Qatar Stars League Young Player of the Year: 2006 Best Arab Player: 2007 Qatar Player of the Year: 2013