March 3rd, 2024: This Week In Palestinian Football

Debuts for Abou Ali and Yaser Hamed, Palestinians in Libya continuing rolling, and more transfers in the pipeline

I want to start this week’s newsletter with a special plea. Football Palestine has tried to continue to cover the national team and players without distracting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza. That has sometimes been easier said than done.

The reality for over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza is getting ever more desperate and there is no sign of let up. A few airdrops of aid and a possible ceasefire will do very little to alleiviate the suffering. For footballers in Gaza their livelihoods have been cut off and whatever savings or investment made have simply vanished over the past five months.

As such I have a small ask: Please consider donating to Mohammed Balah’s GoFundMe Page. The player is to proud to solicit donations himself and exiting the Gaza Strip would allow him to continue a career and provide for his family. The national team striker has nine caps and a goal for Palestine and has been a capable striker for various teams in the topflight of Jordan and Oman. An ACL tear weeks after signing for Al-Masry in Egypt changed the trajectory of his career and saw him return to Gaza months before the outbreak of this war.

DONATE TO MOHAMMED BALAH’S GOFUNDME HERE

Egypt based duo off to a flying start

On March 8th, Al-Ahly and Zamalek will face off in the Egypt Cup final and it will be an opportunity to see a Palestinian player on each side of the Cairo divide.

Wessam Abou Ali scored twice on his league debut this week and has come on a substitute in Al-Ahly’s Champions League games.

From a Palestinian perspective, the great thing about having players playing for huge clubs like Al-Ahly and Zamalek is that there is no shortage of coverage. This in-depth analysis of every touch Abou Ali made in his African Champions League debut is perhaps unnecessary but much appreciated.

Yaser Hamed’s debut did not ilicit as much fanfare but he did help Zamalek see out a 2-1 win over Abu Saleem in the CAF Confederations Cup. As it stands, he will need to work to unseat either Mathlouthi or Abdelmaguid to secure a starting position but early signs are that the coaching staff has confidence in his ability.

You can watch interviews with both players given to Zamalek and Al-Ahly TV, resepctively below:

Libyan Experiment working

Every single player that has signed with a Libyan club seems to be settling in well. There is one notable exception- Camilo Saldaña who has apparently signed for Al-Shomooa but precious little has been said about the signing past a preliminary annoucement that he and Jonathan Cantillana had agreed terms with the club.

Across the league, Palestinian players have been enjoying a lot of success. This past week’s Tripoli derby featured three players- Mahmoud Abu Warda started for Al-Ittihad and has been a revelation for the red side of the capital city.

His teammate, Zaid Qunbar who assisted his goal last week, came on as a substitute as 10 man Al-Ittihad lost 3-1 to Al-Ahli.

The third goal was assisted by Samer Jondi. A fourth player, Islam Batran, would have been in line for playing time but he missed out due to injury.

Mohammed Khalil notched his third assist in just three games as Asaria eared a valuable point against fellow relegation rivals Al-Bashayer. The much maligned defender has found some momentum and will perhaps start at least one of Palestine’s World Cup qualifiers this month against Bangladesh.

More Transfers!