2015 Asian Cup Roster Finalized

Palestine’s initial roster of 27 was trimmed down to 23 players with the exclusion of Adham Abu Rwais, Ramzi Barakat, Matías Jadue, and Daniel Kabir Mustafá. 

The exclusion of the later two comes as a surprise with Jadue missing out due to issues with his nationality switch. Multiple sources had Daniel Kabir Mustafá joining up with the squad in Australia but he has also been left out of the squad. 

No 11th hour additions have been made to the squad although the PFA could have drawn from a preliminary list of 50 players (not released to the press). 

Out of the 23 players, six ply their trade abroad (in Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia & Sweden). 

Although most starters are expected to be drawn from the group of players retained after the failed 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign; there are signs that the staff has purposefully included young players in the team. Nine members of the squad are under the age of 25. Three players (Mahmoud Eid, Abed Jaber, and Mus’ab Al-Battat) are born in 1993 and are still eligible to turn out for the Olympic team alongside the squad’s youngest player- third choice goalkeeper Rami Hamadeh (20). 

The squad’s oldest player is Goalkeeper Ramzi Saleh (34) and he is also the most capped (107).

 The oldest outfield player is Raed Fares (32) followed by Murad Ismail who is six days his junior. 

Ashraf Nu’man is the top goalscorer in the squad (13) and could overtake Fahed Attal as Palestine’s all-time leading scorer with a pair of goals Down Under.  

Full Squad after the jump… 

DEFENDERS

MIDFIELDERS

 Jaka Ihbeisheh