Firas Mohamad Al Khatib (; born 9 June 1983) is a

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who mainly played as a forward. He is the Syria national team all-time top goalscorer, with 36 goals.

Club career

Early life

Al-Khatib began playing football at Al-Karamah SC, he was included in the club's categories U-14, with whom he played for two seasons. One of the most important achievements of Al Khatib with youth Al Karamah was the victory of the Republic Cup and the title of the league's top scorer twice 1994–95, 1995–96. He then went on to play for Al Karamah U-17 in 1997, where he was crowned with the league title in the same year. He also won the top scorer title. All this helped the young boy reach the youth team. During two seasons with U-19 team, he managed to win the league title and the second scorer.

Al Karamah

Al Khatib started his professional career in the

Syrian Premier League The Syrian Premier League () is a professional association football league in Syria and the top division of the Syrian football league system. The league comprises 12 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Syrian Le ...

with Al-Karamah in the 1999–2000 season. On 6 October 2000, he scored his first goal in the Syrian Premier League against Al-Futowa which 1–1 finished. In the 2000–01 season, he emerged as his club's top scorer, ranking joint-third overall in the league with 14 goals. During 2001, he spent two trials in Belgium; first with Gent and the second with

Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, B ...

Al Naser

In August 2002, he transferred to Kuwaiti Club Al-Naser, and played in

Kuwaiti Premier League The Kuwait Premier League (), known as Zain Premier League due to sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Kuwait football pyramid system. Formed in 1961, Kuwait SC holds the best record in the competition, having won 20 times. History Th ...

for the first time. He then moved to Al-Arabi, which also competed in the Kuwaiti Premier League.

Al Arabi

With Al-Arabi he won the

Kuwait Emir Cup The Kuwait Amir/Emir Cup () is a Kuwaiti football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ...

three times, the Kuwait Crown Prince Cup twice and the Kuwait Super Cup once. He also scored 134 goals for the club and became a legend in the club. In June 2005, he was loaned out to Al-Ahli in

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

for one match, and played alongside

Pep Guardiola Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Catalans, Catalan professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player from Spain who has been the manager of club Manchester City F.C., Ma ...

Qadsia

On 24 August 2009, Al Khatib signed a two-year contract with Al-Qadsia in the Kuwaiti Premier League and played alongside his old teammate Jehad Al-Hussain. In July 2012, he participated in three games with

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

, scoring once in a trial of month. He impressed manager Sean O'Driscoll enough that the club were looking to sign him on a permanent basis but he was denied a work permit and the club was unable to sign him.

Zakho

On 10 September 2012, he tweeted that he signed with Iraqi Premier League club Zakho FC officially.

Shanghai Shenhua

He left Iraq to join Sergio Batista's

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

side

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Shanghai, that competes in . Shanghai Shenhua plays its home matches at the Shanghai Stadium, located within Xuhui District. The owner of Shanghai Shenhua is ...

at February 2013. He scored his first goal in his

debut.

Return to Al Arabi

He became a free agent at the end of the 2013–14 football season and returned to

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

. He declined an offer from

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 ...

and joined Al-Arabi SC on a 2-year deal. During the first derby against Al-Salmiya, Al-Khatib scored his 100th league goal, but Al-Arabi SC lost the match 3–2. Al-Khatib ended the season with 20 goals and shared the VIVA Premier League 2014–15 top league scorer with Patrick Fabiano. His total goal tally in all competitions was 24 goals. In 2015–16, he was selected in the VIVS Premier League 1st Team alongside teammate Ali Maqseed. Al-Khatib also won the VPL Golden Boot and top scorer of Al-Arabi with 27 goals; his highest tally in any season with any team.

Al Salmiya

In September 2017, he joined to Al-Salmiya, and scored 11 goals in his Kuwaiti Premier League. He became the best goalscorer in Kuwait Premier League history after he scored 147 goals, exceeding many Kuwaiti legends.

Retirement

On 29 September 2019, Al-Khatib announced his retirement from football after spending the whole summer without a club. He finished his career scoring 349 goals to achieve the 19th place in the list of world's best goal scorer of 21st century, as well as being the all-time top scorer of all Kuwaiti domestic competitions with 210 goals. He was also the all-time top scorer in the

, with 162 goals, before Bader Al-Mutawa broke his record in 2024.

International career

Between 2001 and 2002, Al-Khatib played for the Syrian U-17 team. He played for Syria in the AFC U-17 Championship 2002 in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

and was part of the Syrian U-23 team that participated in the AFC Olympic qualification campaign for the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

. Al-Khatib was a regular for the

Syria national football team The Syria national football team () represents Syria in international Association football, football, and is controlled by the Syrian Arab Federation for Football, the governing body for football in Syria. Syria has never qualified for the FIFA ...

from 2001 to 2012. His international debut was at the FIFA World Cup qualification 2002, when he came on as a substitute for Khaled Al Zaher in the match against

Philippine The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

on 4 May 2001 in the Al-Hamadaniah Stadium in

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

. On 11 May 2001 he scored one goal in the FIFA World Cup qualification 2002 match against

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

the match was finished 9–0 for

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. From 2012 to 2017, Al-Khatib boycotted the Syrian national football team to protest president

Bashar al-Assad Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator Sources characterising Assad as a dictator: who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government ...

and his government's airstrikes against Al-Khatib's hometown of Homs. On 23 March 2017, al-Khatib re-joined Syrian national football team and expressed support for Assad. He was not included in the final squad of

2019 AFC Asian Cup The 2019 AFC Asian Cup (or commonly called the Asian Cup 2019) was the 17th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international association football, football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) ...

after getting injured about a month before the tournament, although, he claimed that he was capable of participating if the manager called him because his injury was minor and he could be part of the second match at least. It was really disappointing to him as he mentioned many times on Bein Sports as he was one of the pundits there during the tournament. He was one of the first people who asked to sack coach Bernd Stange after the loss against

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

. In an interview diffused 20 March 2019, he denied any rows between players about the captaincy before and during the Asian Cup, and denied also what Omar Al Somah said earlier about falling out for the captaincy armband. On 5 September 2019, Al Khatib played against

in the

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification was the FIFA World Cup qualification, qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar national football team, Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Par ...

; hence he became the first Asian and seventh footballer in total to participate in six different World Cup qualifiers, other footballers are:

Gianluigi Buffon Gianluigi Buffon (; born 28 January 1978) is an Italian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he is ...

, Essam El Hadary, Pat Jennings, Russell Latapy, Víctor René Mendieta Ocampo and Dwight Yorke.

Managerial career

In 2019–20, Al Khatib became an assistant coach at Al-Salmiya. In June 2021, he was appointed as the head coach of his hometown club Al Karamah. A few days later, Al-Khatib refrained for Al Karama coaching due to "family circumstances". Subsequently, he was appointed as an assistant coach at Al-Naser. In April 2022, Firas became the coach of the Iraqi club Zakho. Three months later, in July 2022, Firas returned to Kuwait as coach of Al-Fahaheel. In May 2024, he extended his contract with the latter until 2025.

Personal life

Al-Khatib, the youngest of 12 siblings, revealed that he is of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian origin, from al-Sha'rawi family, in which his ancestor came to and settled in Mahin, during the Ibrahim Pasha campaign. One of his grandfathers was renamed to Al-Khatib as he worked as an

imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

. He is married and has 6 children.

Career statistics

International

International goals

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

Honours

Club

Al-Arabi *

: 2004–05, 2005–06, 2007–08 * Kuwait Crown Prince Cup: 2006–07, 2014–15 * Kuwait Super Cup: 2007–08 Al-Qadsia *

: 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12 *

: 2009–10, 2011–12 * Kuwait Super Cup: 2009

: 2016–17 * Kuwait Crown Prince Cup: 2016–17 * Kuwait Super Cup:

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

: 2016–17

International

;Syria * West Asian Games 2005: Runner-up *

Nehru Cup The Nehru Cup was an international football tournament organised by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), named after the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. It was launched in 1982, but was not held from 1998 to 2006. After ...

Runner-up (2):

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Individual

* Syria's all-time record goalscorer: (36 goals) * Top Goalscorer

: 2004–05 (13 goals), 2010–11 (14 goals), 2014–15 (20 goals), 2015–16 (23 goals) * Top Goalscorer

: 2004–05 (3 goals) * Top Goalscorer Kuwait Crown Prince Cup: 2003–04 (3 goals) * Top Goalscorer Kuwait Federation Cup: 2008–09 (8 goals) * Top Goalscorer of the

's squad: 2013–14 (11 goals) * 2011 AFC Annual Awards Nominated * VIVA Premier League 1st phase Team: 2015–16 * 2015–16 VPL Golden Boot: (23 goals) * VIVA Premier League Player of the Month: September 2017

Notes

References

Cited sources Further reading *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Khatib, Firas 1983 births Living people Footballers from Homs Syrian men's footballers 21st-century Syrian sportsmen Men's association football forwards Syria men's international footballers Al-Karamah SC players Al Nasr SC (Kuwait) players Al-Arabi SC (Kuwait) players Al Ahli SC (Doha) players Qadsia SC players Umm Salal SC players Shanghai Shenhua F.C. players Syrian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Kuwait Syrian expatriate sportspeople in Kuwait Syrian expatriate sportspeople in Iraq Expatriate men's footballers in Qatar Expatriate men's footballers in China Syrian expatriate sportspeople in China 2011 AFC Asian Cup players Syrian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Chinese Super League players Footballers at the 2006 Asian Games Qatar Stars League players Asian Games competitors for Syria Syrian Premier League players Kuwait SC players Kuwait Premier League players Kuwait Premier League managers Al-Fahaheel SC managers Zakho FC managers Iraq Stars League managers Expatriate football managers in Kuwait Expatriate football managers in Iraq Syrian expatriate football managers Syrian people of Egyptian descent