It was Jose Mourinho who said Almoez Ali had “all it takes to be playing in another league” after watching the then 22-year-old forward score nine goals at the 2019 Asian Cup. Mourinho was not wrong: the goals have kept coming, and Ali is Qatar’s highest scorer while still being the greatest threat that the Maroons pose inside the box.

Yet, the bigger stage never materialised, and the record from Qatar’s maiden Asian Cup triumph remains the zenith against which everything else has been measured and fallen short. He arrives at this World Cup having navigated two consecutive injuries and subpar seasons at Al Duhail by his standards. Qatar will hope that the combination with Afif still works and the big-yet-agile quality comes alive inside the box. If Qatar are to secure a first World Cup win, the burden of that moment and maybe the looping cross will fall, as it usually does, on him.