Keeping track of talents in the diaspora was once a fringe activity confined to the dark corners of the internet. On message boards, Twitter, and Reddit fans of many a national team would pine for stars with ancestry linking them to their national team. Coaxing these talents to play for the land of their ancestors has been seen as something of a panacea.
For every Morocco there are a dozen nations who have recruited diaspora talent only to fail to achieve a breakthrough.
What was once a pastime of internet sleuths is now very much mainstream and football associations the world over have entire departments committed to tracking and recruiting players.
Twenty-one years ago, Palestine went on a recruiting spree of South America. When Palestine opened up 2004 Asian Cup qualifying against Qatar their starting lineup looked like this:
Leonardo Zamora; Francisco Alam, Néstor Narbona, Saeb Jendeya, Roberto Bishara; Pablo Abdala, Edgardo Abdala; Taysir Amer (Mohammed Mansour), Roberto Kettlun, Patricio Acevedo Mehana; Raúl Alejandro Naif (Fuad Jose Quesille).
That lineup featured only two starters born in Palestine. Ten foreign born players featured in the match- eight Chileans and two Argentines.
Fast forward two decades and Palestine has a core of native born talents. In fact, when Palestine beat Hong Kong to secure passage to the Asian Cup knockout stages 15 of the 16 players that participated were born in historic Palestine. Thirteen of them the product of WBPL or Gaza Leagues.
The immediate challenge following Palestine’s exit from the 2023 AFC Asian Cup was to layer that core with more talent. Earlier this year, Palestine secured the services of Al-Ahly Striker Wessam Abou Ali in addition to Malmö midfielder Moustafa Zeidan and AIK striker Omar Faraj.
Sirius unearths yet another Palestinian superstar
How does Sirius do it? In 2022 they sold Moustafa Zeidan to Malmö after a 28 game stint in Uppsala. The next year they scouted the Danish second division and recruited Wessam Abou Ali. He lasted only 16 games with Sirius his ten league goals lifted the modest club from the relegation zone to their best ever finish.
Once Wessam Abou Ali was shipped off to Al-Ahly for a club record fee Sirius returned to the well. Yousef Salech had been scoring goals galore in the 2022-23 season in the Danish second tier. 15 goals in 24 games for Køge convinced his parent club that he needed a sterner test and he spent the first part of the 2023-24 season in the Blegian second tier. The goals dried up (only one in 16 appearances) but Sirius was not put off. Sofascore suggests that the young forwards performances were not limited to goal scoring with a 7.1 rating for his games with SK Beveren.
Sirius invested €600,000 and included a 25% sell on fee for the striker. The 22 year old has repaid that faith many times over. As it stands he is the top scorer in the Allsvenskan and has notched six goals and an assist in nine starts.
As the saying goes: Two is a coincidence, three is a pattern. Was the Palestinian background of Yousef Salech a factor in his recruitment after the success of Abou Ali and Zeidan?
Adding Salech would give Palestine an embarrassment of riches in attack. The #9 position alongside Oday Dabbagh would be contested by Wessam Abou Ali, Omar Faraj, and possibly Salech.
Football Palestine spoke to a current national team player who waxed poetic about the ability of the three “Omar Faraj is a beast, a tank, great with hold up play.” Asked who we would start the player, who wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships said “I would start Wessam but it is going to be a very hard decision for the coach both are really good players.”
Sirius’s attacking style has now lifted another Palestinian player to new heights. “Sirius is the type of team that is always going to score goals that is down the system they will concede two but score three” a former Allsvenskan player told Football Palestine.
Salech’s work through nine league league games is almost identical to the production of Wessam Abou Ali’s last nine games for the club. The Al-Ahly striker recorded seven goals and an assist before departing to Cairo. If Salech keeps scoring he could break the club record transfer fee that Wessam Abou Ali fetched earlier this year.
Fans of Palestinian football will be hoping their paths cross once again with the national team.
