Abdelatif Bahdari (; born 20 February 1984) is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

professional footballer who plays as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

for

Markaz Balata Markaz Shabab Balata () is a professional football team based in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, Palestine, that plays in the West Bank Premier League. Founded in 1954, it won promotion to the WBPL in 2010. Current squad Palestine national football team The Palestine national football team (), governed by the Palestinian Football Association, represents Palestine in men's international football. The squad is under the global jurisdiction of FIFA, and is governed continentally by the Asian Foo ...

Club career

Al-Wehdat

Bahdari began his professional career when he moved to Jordanian Al-Wahdat in the summer of 2009. In his first year, Bahdari and fellow countryman Ahmed Keshkesh helped Al-Wahdat secure the

Jordan FA Cup The Jordan FA Cup (), also known as the Jordan Cup – CFI () for sponsorship reasons, is Jordan's premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout tournament in men's football (soccer), Al-Faisaly FC (Amman), Al-Faisaly have the record for the mos ...

Hajer

Bahdari's season saw him attract the attention of many clubs in the West Bank, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. It was initially thought that Bahdari would join

Kuwait SC Kuwait Sports Club () is a Kuwaiti professional football club based in Kuwait City. Their football team has won Kuwait Premier League 19 times and has won over 50 trophies overall. The club plays in the Al Kuwait Sports Club Stadium located i ...

. He was also linked with Kuwaiti club

Al-Nasr Al-Nassr Football Club () is a professional football club based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The club competes in the Saudi Pro League, the top tier of the Saudi football league system. Al-Nassr is one of only three clubs to have participated ...

, he eventually signed with

Shabab Al-Khaleel Shabab Al-Khaleel Sports Club (), or simply Shabab Al-Khaleel, is a Palestinian professional football club from the city of Hebron that plays in the West Bank Premier League. Honours * West Bank League (7) ** Champions (6): 1979, 1982, 1986, 1 ...

of the West Bank Premier League but the contract included a get-out clause if Bahdari received a professional contract from a club based abroad. On 1 July 2011 Bahdari signed a two-year deal with newly promoted

Hajer Club Hajer Football Club (Arabic: نادي هجر) is a professional association football club based in Al-Hasa, Saudi Arabia. The team play in the Saudi First Division League the 2nd tier of Saudi Football. Established in 1950, the club is the olde ...

of the

Saudi Professional League The Saudi Pro League (SPL), also known as the Roshn Saudi League (RSL) for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Saudi Arabia and the highest level of the Saudi football league system. The SPL is regarded as th ...

. His salary (a rumored $280,000/yr.) would make him the best paid Palestinian athlete. Bahdari captained Hajer on more than one occasion in the Saudi topflight for the

Al-Hasa Al-Ahsa or Al-Hasa may refer to: * Al-Ahsa Eyalet, or Lahsa Eyalet, a subdivision of the Ottoman Empire, now part of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar * Al-Ahsa Oasis, an oasis and historical region in eastern Saudi Arabia. ** Al-Ahsa Governorate, a ...

-based side. Bahdari's was Hajer's second top-scorer with 3 league goals and was second in total minutes played. He was only held out of 4 league matches due to card accumulation, threat of card accumulation, or injury.

International career

Bahdari captained the Palestinian national team in their first home

World Cup qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

against

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

on 3 July 2011. He took over the captaincy on a full-time basis in 2015 during

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia national football team, Rus ...

International goals

:''Scores and results list Palestine's goal tally first.''

Honours

Al-Wehdat *

Jordan Premier League The Jordanian Pro League () is a Jordanian professional league for men's football clubs and represents the top flight of Jordanian football. The championship consists of twelve competing teams in a home and away league system. The league was not ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2014–15 *

: 2009–10,

Jordan FA Shield The Jordan Shield Cup is a men's football (soccer) competition played in Jordan since its inauguration in 1981. It is generally played before the start of the domestic league season, featuring all the clubs from that season. Winners by year W ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Jordan Super Cup The Jordan Super Cup () is a Jordanian football championship contested by the winners of Jordan Premier League and the Jordan FA Cup. In the event that a team wins both League and the Cup, the runners up of the Cup play against the winner of Lea ...

: 2009, 2010 *West Bank Premier League: 2015/16 Palestine *

AFC Challenge Cup The AFC Challenge Cup was an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member countries that were categorised as "emerging countries" in the "Vision Asia" programme. It was created by former AFC president Mohammed ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

* Bangabandhu Gold Cup: 2018 Individual * Bangabandhu Gold Cup MVP: 2018

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bahdari, Abdelatif 1984 births Living people Palestinian men's footballers Footballers from Gaza City Markaz Shabab Al-Am'ari players Hajer FC players Al-Wehdat SC players Shabab Al-Khaleel SC players Markaz Balata players West Bank Premier League players Palestinian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Jordan Expatriate men's footballers in Saudi Arabia Expatriate men's footballers in Iraq Palestinian expatriate sportspeople in Jordan Palestinian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Palestinian expatriate sportspeople in Iraq 2015 AFC Asian Cup players Footballers at the 2006 Asian Games Saudi Pro League players Footballers at the 2018 Asian Games 2019 AFC Asian Cup players Asian Games competitors for Palestine Palestine men's international footballers Men's association football central defenders