While people around the globe watched the World Cup in Qatar last summer, one Qatar native was preparing for his own championship run soccer in America. 

Ahmed Idriss was born in Doha, Qatar, where he lived for the majority of his life. He describes Doha as extremely different from Sacramento. 

“Doha had lots of buildings, everywhere was clean, streets were clean, with no homeless people,” he said. “Qatar is a small country where you can move around easily.” 

However, Idriss came to pursue his education in the US two years ago. After a brief stay with relatives in Texas, he and his mother and brother settled in Sacramento, and Idriss earned a spot on Rio Americano’s Sac-Joaquin section-winning soccer team. 

Idriss has been playing for 12 years. Although Qatar’s soccer rules and tactics were different, he has constantly stayed a winger and right back.

Idriss describes being on Rio’s varsity soccer team as amazing. “We had a great season, nobody expected us to go this far but we did it which was an accomplishment,” he said. 

One of Idriss’s favorite memories was beating Jesuit.

Out of all the soccer players in the world that Idriss could meet he says he would choose Messi. “Messi is my inspiration, he won the World Cup and I want to be just like him, he’s also the GOAT,” Idriss said. 

Besides soccer, Idriss enjoys playing FIFA and 2K on his PlayStation. After graduation Idriss plans to attend medical school in San Francisco, though he eventually wants to return to Qatar.

Idriss has nostalgia thinking about the most recent World Cup. “I missed it unfortunately, I wish I had a chance to go experience it,” he said. “To be honest I was disappointed and expected more for Qatar in the World Cup.” 

Nevertheless, Idriss was glad that his country had had the opportunity. 

“I was proud Qatar was hosting,” he said. “They were preparing it for eight years. I’m happy it went successful and everyone enjoyed it.”