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.jpg) Haidar with Lebanon in 2022 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Position(s) | Midfielder | ||
| Team information | |||
| Current team | BFA | ||
| Number | 20 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Safa | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| –2022 | Safa | ||
| 2022– | BFA | ||
| International career | |||
| Lebanon U18 | |||
| Lebanon U20 | |||
| Lebanon | |||
|
*Club domestic league appearances and goals ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 02:09, 17 December 2024 (UTC) | |||
Céline Haidar (born c. 2005) is a Lebanese footballer who plays as a midfielder for Lebanese Women's Football League club BFA, which she captains, and Lebanon. She previously played for Safa, and won the 2022 WAFF Women's Clubs Championship with them.
With BFA, Haidar won the league in 2023–24; with the Lebanon under-18 team, she won the 2022 West Asian Championship. She sustained a head injury from shrapnel in November 2024 during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and was placed in an induced coma.
Club career
Céline Haidar played for Safa U19 in the 2020–21 Lebanese Women's U19 Football League, before being part of the first team that took part in and won the 2022 WAFF Women's Clubs Championship. Throughout her time at Safa, she wore number 70. At the end of the 2021–22 season, Safa dissolved the women's team.
For the 2022–23 season, Haidar joined another Beirut team, BFA, wearing the number 20. After BFA won the Lebanese Women's Football League for the first time in the 2023–24 season, with a perfect all-wins season, Haidar was made team captain. Described as the pillar and cornerstone of the team, and an intelligent player, she is focal in transition from defense to attack.
International career
Internationally, Haidar has represented Lebanon in its under-18 and under-20 teams, including winning the 2022 WAFF U-18 Girls Championship. In 2024, she was selected to the senior team ahead of preparation for the WAFF Women's Championship.
Injury
When the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began attacking Lebanon in October 2024, Haidar and her family left their home in Chiyah in the south of Beirut to stay in the mountains east of the city. Haidar had recently been named captain of her football team, and returned to the city regularly to train when there were not evacuation warnings from the IDF. On 16 November 2024, she was asleep at home in Chiyah when an evacuation order was issued; her father called her to make sure she received it, and Haidar messaged her mother. Though Haidar left the building, the airstrike was imminent and she was getting on her motorbike when the building was hit. She was hit in the head by shrapnel and found by a friend.
Haidar suffered "severe brain injuries, including multiple skull fractures and brain bleeding." She was taken to a hospital in Hadath, before being transferred to the Saint George Hospital University Medical Center, where she underwent surgery to control the bleeding. She was in a stable condition for several days, before deteriorating on 20 November, when she suffered more bleeding on the brain and was placed in an induced coma.
A video of Haidar unconscious in the rubble, showing her injuries and a man crying nearby, went viral on social media in Lebanon. Other social media responses included further calls for FIFA to suspend Israel from international football in response to their invasions, which have injured multiple footballers.
References
- Moussa, Mohammad (1 November 2020). "2020-21 Safa U19 vs Southern Stars U19 Gallery". FA Lebanon. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
- "Lebanon's Safa win 2022 WAFF Women's Clubs Championship". the-AFC. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
- "2nd WAFF Women Clubs Championship – Jordan 2022 - West Asian Football Federation". 6 March 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
- أحوال (1 August 2022). "فريق الصفاء يعلن حل كافة الأجهزة الفنية والإدارية لفريق السيدات". أحوال ميديا (in Arabic). Retrieved 5 June 2023.
- "Beirut Football Academy". Global Sports Archive. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
- ^ "'They killed her dream': Israel strike leaves woman footballer in coma". France 24. 20 November 2024. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
- ^ Alkousaa, Riham; Kozaily, Joelle (22 November 2024). "Rising Lebanese soccer star left in coma by Israeli airstrike". Reuters.
- ^ Wrack, Suzanne (20 November 2024). "Lebanon youth international Céline Haidar in induced coma after airstrike". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 December 2024.