Mario Shabow (born 5 May 1998) is a professional football player. He currently plays for

Sydney United 58 Sydney United 58 Football Club is a semi-professional association football, soccer club and current NSW NPL Champions based in Edensor Park, New South Wales, Edensor Park, Sydney, New South Wales Australia. The club was formed as Sydney Croatia ...

. Born in Iraq, he has represented Australia at youth level.

Early life

Shabow was born in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. At the age of six, his family moved to Australia in 2004, due to the unsettled war-torn country. Shabow who is of Assyrian ethnicity, attended

Hoxton Park High School Hoxton Park High School is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive secondary day school, located in , a south-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1974 in what was then a rural district, the school n ...

and played for the juniors Liverpool Olympic local soccer club. Growing up in the suburbs of Western sydney, Shabow was also playing for the premier league Sydney City Eagles Futsal (football) club. He was chosen to represent NSW in the indoor

Futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

National championships. He gained more experience playing for the

Marconi Stallions Marconi Stallions Football Club is an Australian semi-professional association football club based in Fairfield, Sydney, New South Wales. The club has been crowned Australian champion four times. The Stallions are the soccer team of Club Marc ...

and

Blacktown City FC Blacktown City Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in Blacktown, New South Wales. Founded in 1953, the club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues NSW. Blacktown City's home ground is Landen Stadium in ...

and attracted attention from various

A-league A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

clubs through competing in the NSW National Premier League.

Club career

Western Sydney Wanderers

While playing for

Blacktown City Blacktown City Council is a local government area in Western Sydney, situated on the Cumberland Plain, approximately west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1906 as the Blacktow ...

in 2014, Shabow was called up for the pre season friendly games with the Western Sydney Wanderers squad. After impressive pre season performances, he was selected to play for the Western Sydney Wanderers Youth squad. He immediately made an impact in assisting and scoring goals which caught the attention of former senior Wanderers head coach

Tony Popovic Tony Popovic (born 4 July 1973) is an Australian association football manager and former player. He is currently head coach of the Australia men's national soccer team, Australia national football team. He guided the team to qualify for the 202 ...

. On 29 November 2015, Shabow made his senior club debut as substitute coming on in the 80th minute for Romeo Castelen, away to the Central Coast Mariners. On 11 May 2016, Western Sydney Wanderers signed Shabow on a one-year senior contract, becoming one of the first players to join from the Wanderers Youth Academy for the 2016–2017 A League Season. His second appearance for the Wanderers came on 21 February 2017, in the

Asian Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious cl ...

group stage qualifier against

Urawa Reds The or simply Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ, ''Urawa Rezzu''), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, are a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan, who p ...

Campbelltown Stadium Campbelltown Sports Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Leumeah, a suburb in South Western Sydney, Australia, owned by Campbelltown City Council. Formerly known as Orana Park and Campbelltown Sports Ground, it is currently the home ground ...

, Coming on in the 69th minute. Western Sydney Wanderers were defeated 4–0 on the night.

Newcastle Jets

On 5 April 2017, Shabow signed a two-year contract with

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from the Australi ...

, linking him up with the team at the start of the

2017–18 A-League The 2017–18 A-League was the 41st season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the 13th since the establishment of the A-League in 2004. The season began on 6 October 2017 and ended with the Grand Final on 5 May 2018. Sydney FC won the A-Le ...

season. Shabow's decision to join the club was to gain more first team opportunities. On 29 October 2017, Shabow made his Newcastle Jets debut coming on as a substitute in the 84th minute against the

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, Wanderers, or simply as WSW) is an Australian professional association football club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in t ...

. In June 2018, Shabow Departed the club after one season by mutual agreement. He made seven appearances for the club.

Central Coast Mariners

On 7 June 2018, Shabow signed a two-year contract with

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

side

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Mar ...

. On 11 November 2018, he made his first appearance for The Mariners away to

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

, scoring a goal with his first touch of the ball in the 62nd minute of the game, after coming on as a second-half substitute. On 23 December 2018, Shabow made his starting debut for Central Coast Mariners at home against

. Shabow was released by the Mariners in March 2020. He joined

, which compete in the

National Premier Leagues NSW The National Premier Leagues NSW is a semi-professional soccer competition in New South Wales, Australia. The competition is conducted by Football NSW, one of the two organising bodies in New South Wales (the other being the National Premier L ...

International career

Australia Under 20

In 2015, Shabow was selected to represent the

Young Socceroos The Australia national under-20 soccer team, known colloquially as the Young Socceroos, represents Australia in international under-20 Association football, soccer. The team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football ...

, despite being eligible to play for his heritage country

, for the AFC U-19 Championship Qualifiers which were held in

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 ...

. In his second appearance for the Young Socceroos, he scored a second half goal which earned them a 2–0 win over Laos. In September 2016, Shabow was selected in the squad for the

2016 AFF U-19 Youth Championship The 2016 AFF U-19 Youth Championship was the 14th edition of the AFF U-19 Youth Championship, organised by the ASEAN Football Federation, and known for sponsorship reasons as the AFF Vietcombank U19 Championship. It was hosted by Vietnam for the s ...

, which was held in

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. He helped the team with goals against

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

and

in the group stage. Shabow was again named in squad for the 2016

AFC U-19 Championship The AFC U-20 Asian Cup, formerly known as the AFC Youth Championship and AFC U-19 Championship, is a biennial international association football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-20 national teams ...

. In their opening game against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, He scored a goal giving the Young Socceroos a 1–0 victory.

Honours

International

;Australia U20 *

AFF U-19 Youth Championship The ASEAN U-19 Boys' Championship (formerly AFF U-19 Youth Championship) is an annual international football competition contested by the national teams of the members of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and occasionally invited nations fro ...

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 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shabow, Mario 1998 births Living people Western Sydney Wanderers FC players Newcastle Jets FC players Central Coast Mariners Academy players Central Coast Mariners FC players A-League Men players National Premier Leagues players Soccer players from Sydney Iraqi emigrants to Australia Footballers from Baghdad Australian people of Iraqi-Assyrian descent Men's association football midfielders Assyrian footballers Australian men's soccer players 21st-century Australian sportsmen