(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
Doha: Al Gharafa";s Portuguese coach Pedro Caixinha led the first training session for the team on Monday night as the Qatar Stars League side begin preparation for the competitions of the new season.
The majority of the players joined in the training in addition to the new South Korean professional Kyuki who joined Al Gharafa from Qatar Sports Club.
Players who did not participate included Hungarian Kristian Nemeth and Slovakian Vladimir Weiss (pictured), who got permission from the coach for an extra rest as they both were involved in the recently concluded European Championships in France.
Weiss and Nemeth will join their team-mates in their training camp in Portugal which is scheduled to begin on July 18.
Al Gharafa are scheduled to play three friendlies while at the camp.
The first game with Aestrul Praia FC, on July 22 while the second game will be against Benfica B, on July 30.
The preparations for Al Gharafa had been launched on the evening of Sunday and the players are subject to physical testing in the Aspire Academy.
Meanwhile, Muaither, who recently got promoted to the QSL started training ahead of the new season under supervision of French coach Philippe Birol and in the presence of club president Saleh Aji and Mubarak Ghanim, Head of football.
The coach focused on physical training on the first day in preparation for a long season ahead.
Muaither want to maintain its position amid the QSL clubs in this end of the season, which will see the reduction of the number of league clubs to 12 teams only.
The players will train on the physical and technical aspects until the end of this month and later will travel to Bosnia for their training camp, which runs until August 20.
During the training camp, the team will also play a number of friendly matches as well.
The Peninsula