Nadia Assaf (; born 30 September 1985) is a Lebanese

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 ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and former player who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

and a

centre forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on be ...

. She is also a former

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 ...

player, and represented Lebanon internationally in both

and

Early life

Born on 30 September 1985, in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

, United Arab Emirates to a

Lebanese Druze The Lebanese Druze () are an ethnoreligious group constituting about 5.2 percentAmerican University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs le ...

team. She continued her education in England, playing for the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

team.

Club career

Upon her return to Lebanon, Assaf played for Ansar and Athletico in the

Lebanese Women's Football League The Lebanese Women's Football League () is the only league of women's football in Lebanon. It is run by the Lebanese Football Association and began in May 2008, with six teams participating in the debut season. As of the 2024–25 season, ni ...

. She founded Girls Football Academy in 2011, after having been released by Athletico.https://www.al-akhbar.com/Sport/68607/%D9%83%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%87%D9%85%D8%B4%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D8%AA%D8%B7%D9%84%D8%B9-%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%84

International career

Assaf has been capped for Lebanon at senior level in both

and

. In football, she represented

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

in multiple competitions, namely the

2011 WAFF Women's Championship The 2011 West Asian Football Federation Women's Championship tournament was held from 3 to 12 October 2011 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It was the fourth West Asian Football Federation Women's Championship held. The UAE successfully def ...

and the 2014 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification in 2013, where she played three games and scored two goals against

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 ...

. In futsal, Assaf played for

at the 2008 WAFF Women's Futsal Championship.

Personal life

Assaf has a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in Sports Education and Development from the University of Bath in England.

Career statistics

International

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

Honours

Lebanon *

WAFF Women's Championship The West Asian Football Federation Women's Championship (), or simply WAFF Women's Championship, is an international women's association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of the West Asian Footbal ...

third place:

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 ...

Individual *

top goalscorer: 2015–16

References

External links

* * 1985 births Living people American University of Beirut alumni Alumni of the University of Bath Footballers from Dubai Lebanese Druze people Lebanese women's footballers 21st-century Lebanese sportswomen Lebanese women's futsal players Women's association football midfielders Women's association football forwards Al Ansar FC (women) players Athletico SC (Lebanon) players Girls Football Academy players Lebanese Women's Football League players Lebanon women's international footballers Lebanese women's football managers Female association football managers International sportspeople born abroad {{Lebanon-women-footy-bio-stub