The fight to become the 2017-18 season QNB Stars League’s top scorer was between two Youssefs — new champions Al Duhail’s Youssef El Arabi and Youssef Msakni. In the end, Moroccan striker El Arabi bagged the coveted award with 26 goals, just one ahead of his regular captain.

El Arabi was the top scorer last season as well with 24 goals, one more than Al Sadd’s Baghdad Bounedjah.

This time, Al Rayyan’s Abderrazaq Hamdallah (18 goals) came third, followed by Bounedjah (16) and Al Rayyan’s Rodrigo Tabata (15).

El Arabi did not play in Al Duhail’s final-round match against Al Sailiya, which they won 5-2, due to an injury. Msakni took the field in the second half, but could not score and limped off the field after aggravating a knee injury. The Tunisian attacking midfielder has been ruled out for six months and will also miss the FIFA World Cup in Russia.

El Arabi and Msakni jointly accounted for 51 of their 86 goals, and the former had been leading the chart right from the beginning.

El Arabi thus further underlined his scoring abilities and stood out from the rest of the pack. Apart from individual achievements, he has now contributed to his team’s two successive league triumphs as he was a part of last season’s triumphant Lekhwiya who were merged with El Jaish and relaunched at the start of this season as Al Duhail.

“I’m very happy that we won the title with an unbeaten record. I’m also happy that I could be the top scorer for the second successive season. This would motivate me to perform well in future,” said El Arabi, adding he wanted to win every title on offer this season as Al Duhail are in top form.

“We want to win all titles — the Qatar Cup, Emir’s Cup and AFC Champions League. The team is very strong this season as you can see from the results. We’ve big players such as Msakni and we’re ready to compete for all titles on offer this year,” he said.

The 31-year old, who played for long at Spanish club Granada, termed his rivalry with Msakni a healthy one.

“My rivalry with captain Msakni was a very positive one and it was good for the team. I wanted to win the top-scorer award, but it was good that I was challenged by Msakni till the end,” El Arabi concluded.