Celine Haidar

Celine Haidar
Haidar with Lebanon U18 in 2022
Personal information
Full name Celine Abbas Haidar
Date of birth (2005-04-13) 13 April 2005
Place of birth Al-Qusaibah, Lebanon
Height 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Position Midfielder
Team information
Current team
 BFA
Number 6
Youth career
Akhaa Ahli Aley
2020–2022 Safa
2022–2023 BFA
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2021–2022 Safa 3 (0)
2022– BFA 33 (1)
International career‡
2022 Lebanon U18
Lebanon U20
Medal record
Women's football
Representing  Lebanon
WAFF U-18 Girls Championship
Gold medal – first place2022 LebanonU-18 Team
* Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 04:59, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals as of 04:59, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

Celine Abbas Haidar (Arabic: سيلين عباس حيدر; born 13 April 2005) is a Lebanese footballer who plays as a midfielder for Lebanese club BFA.

Haidar began her senior career with Safa before joining BFA in 2022. She helped BFA win the Lebanese Women's Football League in 2023–24 and captained the club. At international level, Haidar represented Lebanon at under-18 and under-20 level and won the 2022 WAFF U-18 Championship. She was subsequently called up to the senior national team.

On 16 November 2024, Haidar sustained a severe traumatic brain injury after being struck by shrapnel during an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. She subsequently remained in a coma for several weeks and underwent a lengthy rehabilitation. By March 2026, she had progressed to walking and running.

Early 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 children.[3] She developed an interest in football from a young age and regularly played with boys in her local area.[3] Haidar's family supported her pursuit of football despite the sport's limited opportunities for women in Lebanon.[3]

Club career

Safa

Haidar playing for Safa U19 in 2020

Haidar began her youth career with Akhaa Ahli Aley[4] before joining Safa.[3] She played for Safa's under-19 team during the 2020–21 season[5] before joining the senior team in 2021.[1] She was part of the Safa side that won the 2022 WAFF Women's Clubs Championship.[6][7][8] Safa subsequently dissolved its women's football programme in 2022.[9]

BFA

Haidar joined BFA in 2022.[3] During the 2022–23 season, she primarily played for the club's under-19 side, winning the under-19 league,[8][3] while also making appearances for the senior team.[1] She scored her first senior goal for BFA in a 10–0 victory over Helium on 25 June 2023.[1]


BFA won the 2023–24 Lebanese Women's Football League without losing a match.[10] Haidar became one of the team's midfield leaders and occasionally wore the captain's armband during the season.[3][11] She was appointed permanent captain in September 2024,[10][2] following the departure of Syntia Salha.[12]

International career

Haidar represented Lebanon at under-18 and under-20 level.[13] She was part of the Lebanon under-18 team that won the 2022 WAFF U-18 Girls Championship.[14]

In 2024, Haidar was called up to the Lebanon senior national team in preparation for the WAFF Women's Championship.[2] She received several call-ups without making an appearance.[3] She was subsequently expected to make her senior debut against Iran in October 2024, but the match was cancelled after further ground attacks by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).[15]

Style of play

Haidar was described as an intelligent midfielder who played a key role in the team's transition from defence to attack.[10][2][13][10] Her coach compared her playing style to that of Sergio Busquets.[8]

Injury and rehabilitation

On 16 November 2024,[15] Haidar was seriously injured during an Israeli airstrike in Chiyah, in the southern suburbs of Beirut.[13][10] She had returned to Beirut from Baakline to train,[15] and was attempting to leave the area after an evacuation order when she was struck on the right side of her head by shrapnel.[16][2][3] She suffered severe head injuries, including multiple skull fractures and cerebral 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,[13] and was placed in an induced coma.[10]

A video showing Haidar unconscious and injured after the attack circulated widely on social media in Lebanon.[10][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.[13] Unconfirmed reports on 17 and 18 November claimed that she had died,[17] but the Beirut Football Academy clarified that she remained in critical condition.[8][16] According to The New York Times, Haidar became "a symbol of the war’s destruction".[11]

Haidar remained in a coma for several weeks.[13][8] During her hospitalization, she experienced complications involving the sodium level in her blood and required a feeding tube. Her oxygen support was removed in December 2024, but she subsequently underwent an emergency tracheostomy on 20 December. By early January 2025, she had regained consciousness but was unable to move or speak and rarely responded to sounds around her.[3][18] She subsequently began a prolonged rehabilitation programme.

By May 2025, Haidar had progressed from being unable to move independently to walking under supervision.[11] She continued to experience physical and neurological effects from her injuries and remained in rehabilitation, with difficulties performing football-related movements.[19] In November 2025, she was reported to be working to regain her independence and football skills.[19]

By March 2026, Haidar had progressed to walking and running.[20][21] With her playing career interrupted, she began considering coaching as a possible future career.[20] She continued intensive rehabilitation for the effects of her brain injury, expressing a determination to avoid being confined to a wheelchair or dependent on a cane.[20]

Honours

Haidar (bottom row, third from left) with Safa after winning the 2022 WAFF Women's Clubs Championship

Safa

BFA

BFA under-19

  • Lebanese Under-19 Women's Football League: 2022–23

Lebanon under-18

References

Wikimedia Commons logo
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Celine Haidar.
  1. 1 2 3 4 "Celine Haidar". Global Sports Archive. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Alkousaa, Riham; Kozaily, Joelle (22 November 2024). "Rising Lebanese soccer star left in coma by Israeli airstrike". Reuters.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Feringa, Megan. "Celine Haidar, the Lebanon player struck by shrapnel, has loved ones 'waiting for her to come back to life'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 3 January 2025. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
  4. ↑ Harding, Jonathan. "Bombs in Lebanon ending lives, dreams and football – DW – 11/22/2024". DW. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
  5. ↑ Moussa, Mohammad (1 November 2020). "2020-21 Safa U19 vs Southern Stars U19 Gallery". FA Lebanon. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
  6. ↑ "Lebanon's Safa win 2022 WAFF Women's Clubs Championship". the-AFC. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
  7. ↑ "2nd WAFF Women Clubs Championship – Jordan 2022 - West Asian Football Federation". 6 March 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Teenage Lebanese international football star in coma after Israeli airstrike". Arab News. 22 November 2024. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
  9. ↑ أحوال (1 August 2022). "فريق الصفاء يعلن حل كافة الأجهزة الفنية والإدارية لفريق السيدات". أحوال ميديا (in Arabic). Retrieved 5 June 2023.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "'They killed her dream': Israel strike leaves woman footballer in coma". France 24. 20 November 2024.
  11. 1 2 3 Feringa, Megan (2 May 2025). "Celine Haidar: Lebanon player learning to walk again, but effects of her injuries run deep". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 May 2025.
  12. ↑ "Ενισχύεται με νεαρή διεθνή μεσοεπιθετικό από τον Λίβανο". Archived from the original on 19 December 2024. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wrack, Suzanne (20 November 2024). "Lebanon youth international Céline Haidar in induced coma after airstrike". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
  14. ↑ لبنان (أ) يتصدر جدول الترتيب بعد فوز كبير في إفتتاح بطولة غرب آسيا للشابات [Lebanon (A) tops the table after a big win in the opening of the West Asian Women's Championship]. Lebanese Football Association (in Arabic). 19 October 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  15. 1 2 3 López, Arturo (20 November 2024). "Jugadora de 19 años quedó en coma tras ataques de Israel". Excélsior (in Mexican Spanish).
  16. 1 2 "En coma una joven promesa libanesa víctima de los ataques israelíes: "Mataron su sueño"". Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 20 November 2024.
  17. ↑ "Uccisa a Beirut anche la stella del calcio libanese, Celine Haidar". RaiNews (in Italian). 18 November 2024.
  18. ↑ Feringa, Megan. "Celine Haidar, the Lebanon player struck by shrapnel, wakes from coma". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  19. 1 2 "A year after being wounded in an Israeli strike, footballer Celine Haidar defies all odds". L'Orient Today. 19 November 2025. Retrieved 17 August 2026.
  20. 1 2 3 "« Rester sur un fauteuil ? Marcher avec une canne ? J'ai 20 ans et je refuse » : Céline Haidar, ancienne espoir libanaise, raconte son combat pour retrouver une vie normale". L'Équipe (in French). Retrieved 17 August 2026.
  21. ↑ "BFA Featured in France Football: Céline Haidar's Inspiring Story of Resilience". Beirut Football Academy. 15 March 2026. Retrieved 17 August 2026.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.