Kassem Mohammed El Zein (, ; born 2 December 1990) is a Lebanese

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 plays as a defender for club

Nejmeh Nejmeh Sporting Club () is a football club based in Manara, a neighbourhood in Ras Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, that competes in the . The club was established in Beirut in 1945, and received its license in 1947. Nejmeh have won nine Lebanese Pre ...

and the Lebanon national team. El Zein began his senior career in 2011 at Nejmeh, playing over 100 league matches. In 2020 he was sent on loan, to Iraqi club Al-Mina'a and Kuwaiti club Al-Nasr, respectively. El Zein made his international debut for Lebanon in 2014, and was part of the

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

AFC Asian Cup squads.

Club career

Al-Mina'a

On 28 January 2020, El Zein was sent on a three-month loan to

Iraqi Premier League The Iraq Stars League (), is the highest level of the Iraqi football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Iraqi Premier Division League. It is governed by the Iraqi Pro League Asso ...

side Al-Mina'a. He made his debut on 17 February 2020, in a 1–0 home win over Naft Al-Janoob in the first matchday of the season. El Zein played four league games for Al-Mina'a; however, the season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Al-Nasr

On 18 June 2020, El Zein was sent on a one-year loan to 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 made his debut on 16 October, in a 2–1 win against Al-Shabab in the classification league between

Kuwait 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 The ...

and

Kuwaiti Division One The Kuwaiti Division One () is a second-tier professional Kuwaiti football league. Winners of the league are promoted to the Kuwait Premier League. Kuwaiti Division One was introduced for the 2006–07 season, when the bottom 6 clubs in the Pre ...

clubs. El Zein helped his side finish first in the qualifying stage. His debut in the

2020–21 Kuwaiti Premier League 59th edition of the tournament. Kuwait SC are the defending champions. Teams Main league table The main league, consisting of 15 teams, was played between 15 October, 2020 and 26 December, 2020 to determine the clubs competing in the league ...

came on 22 January 2021, in a 1–0 away win against Al-Shabab. El Zein scored a goal on 25 April, helping his side to a 2–1 away win against Al-Fahaheel. He finished the season with 17 league games.

Nejmeh

El Zein returned to Nejmeh for the 2021–22 season. His contract was renewed in 2022. On 30 June 2024, El Zein scored the decisive goal in the 95th minute in the last game of the

2023–24 Lebanese Premier League The 2023–24 Lebanese Premier League was the 62nd season of the Lebanese Premier League, the top Lebanese league for football clubs since its establishment in 1934. The league started on 4 August 2023, and ended on 30 June 2024. It was the four ...

against rivals Ansar, allowing Nejmeh to win the league for the first time in 10 years.

International career

El Zein debuted for the Lebanon national team on 14 October 2014, in a friendly against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. In December 2018, he was called up for the

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) ...

, where he played a group stage game against Saudi Arabia. El Zein scored his first international goal against

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

on 10 September 2023, to help Lebanon finish third in the

2023 King's Cup The 2023 Annual King's Cup Football Tournament (), also referred to as 2023 Thailand King's Cup, was the 49th King's Cup, the annual international men's football tournament organized by Football Association of Thailand. As hosts, Thailand part ...

. In December 2023, El Zein was included in the Lebanese squad for the

2023 AFC Asian Cup The 2023 AFC Asian Cup was the 18th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It involved 24 national teams after its expansion in 20 ...

Style of play

Initially starting out as a full-back, El Zein progressed into a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

with the years; his main abilities are his tackling and reading of the game.

Personal life

As of 2019, El Zein was working as a part-time chef at ''L'Avenue Du Parc'', a restaurant in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

. He stated that "while in other countries football can be a full-time job, in Lebanon it is necessary for a player to have a second job." El Zein's favourite club is

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

, while his favourite player is former Manchester United defender

Nemanja Vidić Nemanja Vidić ( sr-Cyrl, Немања Видић, ; born 21 October 1981) is a Serbian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Widely considered to be one of the greatest defenders in history, Vidić is best known for his t ...

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Lebanon's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each El Zein goal''.

Honours

Nejmeh *

Lebanese Premier League The Lebanese First Division (), commonly known as the Lebanese Premier League (), is the top division of the Lebanese football league system. Established in 1934 and organized by the Lebanese Football Association (LFA), the Lebanese Premier Leagu ...

: 2013–14, 2023–24 *

Lebanese FA Cup The Lebanon Cup (), commonly known as the Lebanese FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in domestic Lebanese football. In the first FA Cup final, held on 26 June 1938, Nahda beat Hilmi-Sport 3–2 in the replay (after drawing 1� ...

: 2015–16, 2021–22,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Lebanese Elite Cup The Lebanese Elite Cup () was a Lebanese football annual cup competition contested by the top six teams of the previous Lebanese Premier League season. Founded in 1996 as the Super League Cup, the first edition was played by the top five finisher ...

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 ...

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 ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Lebanese Super Cup The Lebanese Super Cup () is Lebanese football's annual match contested between the champions of the previous Lebanese Premier League season and the holders of the Lebanese FA Cup. If the Lebanese Premier League champions also won the Lebanese FA ...

: 2014, 2016,

; runner-up:

Individual *

Lebanese Premier League Team of the Season The Al-Manar Football Festival () was an event organised by the Al-Manar television station between the 1996–97 and 2018–19 seasons in order to award players, managers, referees and teams who were considered to have performed the best over ...

: 2018–19

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zein, Kassem 1990 births Living people Lebanese men's footballers 21st-century Lebanese sportsmen Lebanese chefs People from Tyre District Sportspeople from South Governorate Men's association football defenders Men's association football central defenders Men's association football fullbacks Lebanese Premier League players Nejmeh SC players Lebanese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Iraq Lebanese expatriate sportspeople in Iraq Iraq Stars League players Al-Minaa SC players Expatriate men's footballers in Kuwait Lebanese expatriate sportspeople in Kuwait Kuwait Premier League players Al Nasr SC (Kuwait) players Lebanon men's international footballers 2019 AFC Asian Cup players 2023 AFC Asian Cup players