Doha: The Qatari young boy of determination, Ghanim Al Muftah, kicked off the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 on Sunday by reciting a Quranic verse in a scene that is the first of its kind in the history of the World Cup.
Amidst an enthusiastic and festive atmosphere on the grounds of the distinguished Al-Bayt stadium, the international star and Qatari champion Ghanim Al Muftah – who started the ceremony by reciting a Quranic verse – presented a unique painting that dazzled the world.
Who is Ghanim Al Muftah?
Al Muftah was born on May 5, 2002 in the Qatari capital, Doha, as one of twin brothers and from birth he suffered from a disease called “caudal retraction” syndrome.
Caudal retraction syndrome, also known as caudal dip or sacral dysgenesis, is a rare congenital disorder that occurs when the lower part of the spine is not fully formed before birth.
This disease affects one person out of 25,000 cases in the world, and accordingly, the Qatari Ghanim Al Muftah lived his life with half a body after losing a large part of his bones, due to this disease.
As per multiple media reports, his mother wanted to enroll him in a school for primary education. However, many schools refused him and the last school he finally managed to get admission in, children were shying away from playing with him due to his disability.
Al Muftah attributes his positive outlook on life to his mother, and learning persistence and patience from his father.
Al Muftah aspires to join the diplomatic work in his country. He was a goodwill ambassador for the “Good Hands” Foundation towards Asia in 2015, and he also participated in the United Nations Youth Forum in 2017.
Ghanim also issued many motivational books and publications, which helped many people with disabilities to overcome the difficulties they suffered from.
Al Muftah has an entrepreneurial spirit. He has his own ice cream company called “Gharissa Ice Cream”, a project inspired by his mother. To date, his company has 6 branches and 60 employees.
With the support of his family, Ghanim also founded Al-Ghanem Foundation, a charity organization that provides wheelchairs to disabled people around the world.
In 2017, Ghanim al-Muftah has achieved the blessing of performing Umrah without using a wheelchair.
He used to play football wearing gloves during his student days. Apart from football, he also enjoys diving and has shown the essence of diving up to 200 meters in the sea.
In addition to sports and social brilliance, Ghanim Al Muftah is currently continuing his university studies, where he majored in political science, and his ultimate goal is to become a diplomat.
He is also a major social media star, with more than seven million followers on TikTok, more than 3.3 million on Instagram and nearly a million subscribers on YouTube.
Ghanim said in one of the videos, “Since I was young, I learned to reconcile with myself, and with things that I cannot change, so I reconciled with my body, I reconciled with my appearance.”
“By the grace of God, I have reached the conviction that God – Glory be to Him – created me in the best form, and that my pains were healed with patience, praise and supplication,” he adds.
Ghanim explained, “Reconciliation with things that we cannot change is strength and not weakness, happiness and not misery, hope and not pain. I have accepted my body and thank God for it.”
On his Twitter page on Monday, Al Muftah said, “Today, it means that dreamers speak the language of achieving dreams. For every Qatari, and for all of us, our dreams can happen with determination.”
World Cup Ambassador
On April 1, 2022, the Qatar World Cup Supreme Committee announced the appointment of Al Muftah as an official ambassador for the tournament, which is being held for the first time in the Arab world.
Al Muftah did not hide his extreme joy and pride in this choice, by publishing a short tweet on his official account.
Al-Muftah wrote, “It is a great honor for me to announce that I have been selected as an official ambassador for the FIFA World Cup 2022, and I look forward to sharing with you the enthusiasm and excitement on our way to the tournament.”
On that day, he also published a video clip in which he appeared with Gianni Infantino, President of the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) and captioned it, “Thank you for this honor and trust, and thank you for the gold medal that you gave me, it is a great honor to work alongside you.”
