Abdelkarim played in the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup, in which he scored in a 3–1 win over Hienghène Sport. He later scored in the second round 3–2 loss against C.F. Monterrey. Al-Sadd eventually finished in the 5th place.
On 21 December 2022, the management of Al Sadd announced that Abdelkarim Hassan has been excluded from the football first team permanently. This comes due to the player’s outlook not matching the goals and aspirations of the team for the upcoming period.[10] On 25 January 2023, Abdelkarim Hassan joined for Kuwaiti Premier League club Al-Jahra.[11]
In a friendly match against the Malaysia U-23 side on 17 June 2012, Abdelkarim sparked a mass melee between the two sides after a two-footed lunge on Mohd Azrif in the 43rd minute. He was duly shown a red card for his challenge. Afterwards, a Malaysian player, Nazmi Faiz, ran half the length of the pitch to confront him, and punched him. Being 5 inches shorter than Abdelkarim, Nazmi's punch turned into nothing more than a push on his chest.[16] Nazmi Faiz was shown a red card, whereas Qatar went on to lose 2–0.[17]
He scored a goal in Qatar's opening game against Maldives in the qualifying stage for the 2014 AFC U-22 Asian Cup.[18]
Abdelkarim made his debut for the senior national team on 18 November 2010 against Haiti.[19]
He was the youngest player to appear in the preliminary squad list for the 2011 Asian Cup at the age of 17 years and 123 days old. He scored Qatar's only goal against Malaysia in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers to ensure Qatar a berth in the Asian Cup.[20] He also scored a goal in Qatar's 4–1 victory against Yemen in the qualifiers.
Though his team lost all their group stage games in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, he was extolled as one of the stars of the tournament. A FIFA.com featured article theorized that he would form the basis of young players who go on to represent Qatar at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.[21]
He was named part of Qatar's squad for the 23rd Arabian Gulf Cup held in Kuwait in from December 2017 to January 2018.[22]
He was part of Qatar's squad at 2019 AFC Asian Cup which helped them to win their first continental title. On 30 March 2021, he played his 100th match for Qatar in a 1–1 friendly match against the Republic of Ireland.
Controversy
Following the three-loss streak of the Qatar national football team in the group stage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, screenshots of a conversation with Hassan on Snapchat surfaced and started circulating over social media. In the conversation Hassan displayed a careless and apathetic attitude towards the poor performance of the team with a now-famous remark saying: “استريح عبالك حرب” (lit: relax! It’s not war). Following the remark, the Qatar Football Association announced on its official twitter account the exclusion of Hassan from the national team as did Hassan’s club Al Sadd SC from the player roster.[23]
