Philippe Coutinho (Brazil), one of Barcelona’s greatest ever signings, is heading to Asia.
Al Duhail announced the loan signing of Coutinho on Monday (July 9) on their official website. It is a one-year loan for the 2023/24 season.
The club said: “In order to strengthen our first-team squad, we have been able to sign Coutinho, born in 1992, from Aston Villa on a season-long loan. The player signed the contract in the presence of the vice-president.”
Al Duhail is a prestigious Qatari team that has won the Qatar Stars League eight times. In particular, Nam Tae-hee played for the team for a long time, starting with Requiem (Al Duhail’s predecessor) in 2012. Currently, Kim Moon-hwan is a fullback for the South Korean national soccer team.
He played for the club from 2012 to the summer of 2019 and again from the summer of 2021 to this summer. During this time, he won six league titles with Al Duhail and was part of the team’s history.
With Nam’s departure to Yokohama F. Marinos (Japan) this summer, Al Duhail looked to bolster their roster. Al Duhail succeeded in bringing in Coutinho on loan for a season from Aston Villa.
Coutinho was a rising talent in Brazil. In the summer of 2008, Inter Milan (Italy) recognized his talent when they signed him as a 16-year-old from the youth team of Vasco da Gama (Brazil). After a two-year loan spell with the Nerazzurri, he moved to Inter Milan and began to blossom on the European stage before moving to Liverpool (England) in January 2013.
Coutinho showed off his attacking talents at Liverpool. In his five-year Liverpool career through the first half of the 2017/18 season, Coutinho scored 54 goals and provided 45 assists in 201 games, amassing nearly 100 attacking points. Most importantly, Coutinho made an impact on the pitch with his dribbling runs, forward passes, and direct, curling shots.
Barcelona (Spain) then showed interest in Coutinho, and when he heard the news, he began to push for a transfer, including preliminary contacts. Liverpool rejected the offer, but in January 2018, Coutinho left for Barcelona. The transfer fee was a whopping €135 million. Coutinho was the first player signed by Barcelona in the summer of 2017 with the transfer fee proceeds from the sale of Neymar to PSG (France), which amounted to €222 million (approximately $317.6 billion).
But Coutinho’s time at Barcelona was a mess. First and foremost, his injury list was long. In total, Coutinho missed 73 games and 375 days of action for Barcelona. The injuries were varied: hamstring, muscle fibers, ankle, meniscus tear, COVID-19 infection, and more.토스카지노
In the end, Coutinho spent time on loan at Bayern Munich (Germany) and Aston Villa (England) before completing a permanent move to Villa last year. The transfer fee was just €20 million (approximately $28.6 billion). After making just 20 appearances last season, he started the new 2023/24 season with two games before missing two through injury.
Coutinho will now look to bounce back in Asia. Al Duhail have reached the knockout stages of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League this season. Al Duhail will open their Champions League group stage campaign against Istiklol Dushanbe (Tajikistan) on June 19.