Al-Sadd SC

The 2007 season is the one to point to: under Jorge Fossati, Al-Sadd won all four domestic trophies on offer. It fit a pattern already decades old by then — the club had taken the country's first officially recognised league title in 1973-74 and never really stopped collecting them since, reaching 18 by the end of 2024-25.

Al-Sadd's name comes from the Doha district where Ali bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, the footballer who led its founding in October 1969, grew up; the family had wanted a club separate from the ones already running in the city. Continental success followed in 1988-89, when Al-Sadd beat Iraq's Al-Rasheed on away goals to become the first Arab club to win the Asian Club Championship. They repeated the feat in 2011 under a different name for the same competition, the AFC Champions League, beating South Korea's Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors on penalties, then went on to finish third at the FIFA Club World Cup that year.

The academy has produced its own history rather than importing all of it: Hassan Al-Haydos holds the club's appearance record, and Akram Afif was named Asia's Player of the Year in 2019. Alongside them the club has fielded Xavi Hernández as a player and later manager, Raúl, Gabi, Santi Cazorla and, since 2025, Roberto Firmino.

None of it has gone unanswered. They have met 52 times since, Al-Duhail just ahead on wins, with Baghdad Bounedjah the game's leading scorer on either side.