Abdelkarim Hassan

Abdelkarim Hassan Al Haj Fadlalla (Arabic: عَبْد الْكَرِيم حَسَن الْحَاجّ فَضْل الله; born 28 August 1993) is a Qatari professional footballer who plays as a left-back or center-back for Qatar Stars League club Al-Wakrah and the Qatar national team.

Abdelkarim Hassan

Hassan playing for Persepolis in 2024
Personal information
Full name	Abdelkarim Hassan Al Haj Fadlalla[1]
Date of birth	(1993-08-28) 28 August 1993 (age 31)[2]
Place of birth	Doha, Qatar
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)[3]
Position(s)	Left-back, center-back
Team information
Current team	Al-Wakrah
Number	3
Youth career
2007–2010	Al Sadd
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2010–2022	Al Sadd	190	(29)
2017–2018	→ Eupen (loan)	10	(1)
2023–2024	Al-Jahra	21	(0)
2024	Persepolis	13	(0)
2024–	Al-Wakrah	13	(0)
International career‡
2010–2014	Qatar U20	5	(1)
2011–2015	Qatar U23	9	(4)
2010–	Qatar	133	(15)
Medal record Representing  Qatar Men's Football AFC Asian Cup Winner Qatar 2019 FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021
* Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 1 June 2024 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals as of 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Abdelkarim won the Asian Footballer of the Year award in 2018.^[4]

Club career

Abdelkarim with Abdurahman Al-Harazi in a QSL match, 2017

Abdelkarim Hassan graduated from Aspire Academy in 2011.^[5]

He was the youngest player to appear in the 2011 AFC Champions League at 17 years old,^[6] coming off the bench against Esteghlal.^[7] His team subsequently emerged champions of the Champions League that year. He was awarded Young Player of the Year in the 2012–13 Qatar Stars League.^[8] It was announced in June 2017 that Al Sadd had loaned him to Belgian First Division A side Eupen.^[9]

Abdelkarim played in the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup, in which he scored in a 3–1 win over Hienghène Sport. He later scored in the second round 3–2 loss against C.F. Monterrey. Al-Sadd eventually finished in the 5th place.

On 21 December 2022, the management of Al Sadd announced that Abdelkarim Hassan has been excluded from the football first team permanently. This comes due to the player’s outlook not matching the goals and aspirations of the team for the upcoming period.^[10] On 25 January 2023, Abdelkarim Hassan joined for Kuwaiti Premier League club Al-Jahra.^[11]

Persepolis

On 22 January 2024, Hassan joined Persian Gulf Pro League side Persepolis on a 18-month deal,^[12][13] making him first Qatari footballer to play professionally in Iran.^[14]

International career

Youth teams

Abdelkarim scored a goal against UAE U20 in the 10th International Friendship Youth Tournament.^[15]

In a friendly match against the Malaysia U-23 side on 17 June 2012, Abdelkarim sparked a mass melee between the two sides after a two-footed lunge on Mohd Azrif in the 43rd minute. He was duly shown a red card for his challenge. Afterwards, a Malaysian player, Nazmi Faiz, ran half the length of the pitch to confront him, and punched him. Being 5 inches shorter than Abdelkarim, Nazmi's punch turned into nothing more than a push on his chest.^[16] Faiz was promptly shown a red card. Qatar went on to lose the match 2–0.^[17]

He scored a goal in Qatar's opening game against Maldives in the qualifying stage for the 2014 AFC U-22 Asian Cup.^[18]

Senior team

Abdelkarim with Qatar in the 2019 Asian Cup Final

Abdelkarim made his debut for the senior national team on 18 November 2010 against Haiti.^[19]

He was the youngest player to appear in the preliminary squad list for the 2011 Asian Cup at the age of 17 years and 123 days old. He scored Qatar's only goal against Malaysia in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers to ensure Qatar a berth in the Asian Cup.^[20] He also scored a goal in Qatar's 4–1 victory against Yemen in the qualifiers.

Though his team lost all their group stage games in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, he was extolled as one of the stars of the tournament. A FIFA.com featured article theorized that he would form the basis of young players who go on to represent Qatar at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.^[21]

He was named part of Qatar's squad for the 23rd Arabian Gulf Cup held in Kuwait in from December 2017 to January 2018.^[22]

He was part of Qatar's squad at 2019 AFC Asian Cup which helped them to win their first continental title. On 30 March 2021, he played his 100th match for Qatar in a 1–1 friendly match against the Republic of Ireland.

Controversy

Following the three-loss streak of the Qatar national football team in the group stage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, screenshots of a conversation with Hassan on Snapchat surfaced and started circulating over social media. In the conversation Hassan displayed a careless and apathetic attitude towards the poor performance of the team with a now-famous remark, saying: "استريح عبالك حرب" (lit. 'Relax! It's not war'). Following the remark, the Qatar Football Association announced on its official twitter account the exclusion of Hassan from the national team as did Hassan’s club Al Sadd SC from the player roster.^[23]

Career statistics

Club

As of 1 June 2024^[1][5]

Club	Season	League	League		Cup1		League Cup2		Continental3		Total
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Al Sadd	2010–11	QSL	10	0	0	0	0	0	10	0	20	0
	2011–12		9	0	0	0	6	0	0	0	15	0
	2012–13		18	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	7	0
	2013–14		23	2	3	0	2	0	8	0	35	0
	2014–15		25	5	3	0	2	0	10	1	40	6
	2015–16		21	4	1	1	0	0	1	0	23	5
	2016–17		23	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	24	3
K.A.S. Eupen	2017–18 (loan)	Belgian First Division A	10	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	11	1
Al Sadd	2017–18	QSL	8	1	2	0	1	0	11	1	22	2
	2018–19		14	4	3	0	0	0	10	1	27	5
	2019–20		16	2	1	1	6	2	8	0	31	5
	2020–21		16	2	5	0	2	0	6	0	29	2
	2021–22		17	3	3	1	0	0	4	0	24	4
	2022–23		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Al Sadd SC Total		200	29	24	3	19	2	69	5	312	39
Al Sadd B	2016–17	Reserve League (Qatar)	1	0	0	0	—		—		1	0
	2021–22		1	0	0	0	—		—		1	0
Al-Jahra	2022–23	KPL	12	0	1	1	—		—		13	1
	2023–24		9	0	1	0	—		—		10	0
Al-Jahra Total			21	0	2	1	—		—		23	1
Persepolis	2023–24	Pro League	13	0	2	0	—		—		15	0
	Total		13	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	15	0
Career Total			246	30	29	4	19	2	69	5	363	41

¹Includes Emir of Qatar Cup.

²Includes Sheikh Jassem Cup.

³Includes AFC Champions League.

International goals

Qatar score listed first, score column indicates score after each Hassan goal.^[1][24]

International goals by date, venue, cap, opponent, score, result and competition

No.	Date	Venue	Cap	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	31 January 2013	Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar	2	Lebanon	1–0	1–0	Friendly
2	7 March 2013	Thani bin Jassim Stadium, Doha, Qatar	4	Egypt	1–1	3–1	Friendly
3	15 November 2013	Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar	18	Yemen	2–1	4–1	2015 AFC Asian Cup qualification
4	6 November 2014	Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium, Doha, Qatar	29	North Korea	3–0	3–1	Friendly
5	27 December 2014	Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium, Doha, Qatar	35	Estonia	2–0	3–0	Friendly
6	30 March 2015	Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar	40	Slovenia	1–0	1–0	Friendly
7	8 September 2015	Mong Kok Stadium, Mong Kok, Hong Kong	46	Hong Kong	2–0	3–2	2018 FIFA World Cup qualification
8	29 May 2016	Stadion Hartberg, Hartberg, Austria	52	Albania	1–0	1–3	Friendly
9	6 June 2017	Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar	60	North Korea	1–0	2–2	Friendly
10	13 January 2019	Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates	78		6–0	6–0	2019 AFC Asian Cup
11	5 September 2019	Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar	87	Afghanistan	4–0	6–0	2022 FIFA World Cup qualification
12	29 November 2019	Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar	94	Yemen	1–0	6–0	24th Arabian Gulf Cup
13					2–0
14					4–0
15	4 September 2021	Nagyerdei Stadion, Debrecen, Hungary	108	Portugal	1–2	1–3	Friendly

Honours

Abdelkarim celebrating Al-Sadd's AFC Champions League win in 2011

Al-Sadd

• Qatar Stars League: 2012–13, 2018–19, 2020–21, 2021-22
• Emir of Qatar Cup: 2014, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021
• Qatar Cup: 2017, 2020, 2021
• Sheikh Jassim Cup: 2014, 2019
• Qatari Stars Cup: 2019-20
• AFC Champions League: 2011
• FIFA Club World Cup third place: 2011

Persepolis

• Persian Gulf Pro League: 2023–24

Qatar U23

• GCC U-23 Championship: 2011

Qatar

• AFC Asian Cup: 2019
• Arabian Gulf Cup: 2014

Individual

• Asian Footballer of the Year: 2018^[4]
• AFC Asian Cup Team of the Tournament: 2019^[25]
• Qatar Stars League Team of the Year: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20

See also

• List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps