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Celine Haidar
Lebanese footballer (born 2005) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Celine Abbas Haidar (Arabic: سيلين عباس حيدر; born 13 April 2005) is a Lebanese footballer who plays as a midfielder for Lebanese Women's Football League club BFA, which she captains, and the Lebanon national team. She previously played for Akhaa Ahli Aley and Safa, with which she won the 2022 WAFF Women's Clubs Championship.
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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 serious head injury from shrapnel on 16 November 2024 during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
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Early and personal life
Celine Abbas Haidar was born on 13 April 2005 in Al-Qusaibah, Lebanon,[1] to Abbas Haidar and Saana Shahrour.[2][3] She is the youngest of three, with an older sister and brother. Though the youngest, Celine was able to relocate her family out of Beirut when the 2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon became more intense. Celine was raised devoutly religious but also given the freedom to express herself, something which clashed with conservatism typical in Lebanon.[3]
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Club career
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Safa
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Early in her career, Haidar played for Akhaa Ahli Aley.[4] She then joined Safa and played for their U19 team in the 2020–21 Lebanese Women's U19 Football League,[5] before moving into the first team in 2021.[1] With them she took part in and won the 2022 WAFF Women's Clubs Championship. Throughout her time at Safa, she wore number 70.[6][7][8] At the end of the 2021–22 season, Safa dissolved the women's team.[9]
BFA
When Safa was dissolved, Haidar was offered to another Beirut team, BFA, which initially declined to take her on. The club already had a number of good midfielders and the coach thought Haidar's reputation as headstrong would clash with his strictness. Haidar then messaged the coach directly, and he agreed to her joining.[3]
For the 2022–23 season, Haidar wore the number 20 at BFA.[10] She primarily played for the Under-19 team this season, with whom she won the U19 league,[8][3] and made a few appearances for the senior team.[1] In her first two seasons at BFA, Haidar made 33 Lebanese Women's Football League appearances[11] and scored one goal, the team's first in a 10–0 victory over Helium Sports on 25 June 2023.[1]
BFA won the senior league for the first time in the 2023–24 season, in a perfect season.[12] Haidar had worn the captain's armband for several games during this successful run,[3] despite being the youngest player by several years,[13] and was made team captain in September 2024[12][2] when Syntia Salha left the club.[14] Described as the pillar and cornerstone of the team,[12][2] and an intelligent player,[15] Haidar is focal in transition from defense to attack;[12] her coach called her "Lebanon's Sergio Busquets".[8]
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International career
Internationally, Haidar has represented Lebanon in its under-18 and under-20 teams,[15] 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.[2] After four call-ups to the senior national team without playing,[3] she had been set to make her senior debut against Iran in October 2024, but the Lebanese Football Association cancelled the match after further ground attacks by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).[16]
Injury
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When the IDF began more intense shelling of Beirut in November 2024,[16] Haidar and her family left their home in the Chiyah suburb in the south of Beirut[15][12] to stay in Baakleen, in the mountains outside the city.[16] Haidar had recently been named captain of BFA, and returned to the city regularly to train,[12] which she did on 15 November 2024.[3] On 16 November, the IDF bombed Beirut's suburbs throughout the day.[17] Haidar was at home in Chiyah when an IDF evacuation order was issued, and she left. Her father also called her to make sure she received the warning,[17] and was 500 metres away from her when the missile hit.[3] Though Haidar left the building, the airstrike was imminent[8] and she was getting on her motorbike when the area was hit. She was struck by shrapnel on the right side of the head.[2][3]
Haidar suffered "severe brain injuries, including multiple skull fractures and brain bleeding."[2] She was taken to a hospital in Hadath that was then hit by an airstrike.[8] She was transferred to the Saint George Hospital University Medical Center, where she underwent surgery to control the bleeding,[15] after the president of BFA intervened with the Lebanese Health Minister.[3] On 16 November[8] she was placed in an induced coma.[12] She was in a stable condition for several days, before deteriorating on 20 November, when she suffered more bleeding on the brain, which was treated;[15] she was reportedly stable again by 22 November.[8] Early complications were related to the sodium in her blood. Her oxygen tube was removed on 16 December and, on 20 December, Haidar had an emergency tracheotomy; after this, in the first week of January 2025, she woke from her coma[3][18] after nearly 60 days. Once able, she was moved to a rehabilitation center outside of Beirut, where she also struggled with her mental health. She was initially given "what doctors believed [would] be an ambitious" plan, to be able to use a wheelchair after one year, but was walking independently under supervision by May 2025 with the ambition to return to football.[13]
A video of Haidar unconscious in the street, showing her injuries and a man screaming nearby, went viral on social media in Lebanon.[12][3] 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.[15] There had been unconfirmed reports on 17 and 18 November that Haidar had fallen into a coma following surgery and then died,[19] with BFA clarifying her condition to the press.[8][17] According to The New York Times, she became "a symbol of the war's destruction".[13]
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Honours
Safa
BFA
- Lebanese Women's Football League: 2023–24
BFA under-19
- Lebanese Under-19 Women's Football League: 2022–23
Lebanon under-18
References
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