After a long period of silence the PFA has finally revealed the squad that will face Kyrgyzstan and Bangladesh on September 2nd and September 5th, respectively.
The team landed in Bishkek on August 30th and with only a twenty players it is expected that all outfield players will get a run out over the next week.
It was announced earlier that the local contingent would be the same as the one that contested matched in June but there are some notable exceptions. Ghanem Mahajneh is not amongst the three goalkeepers selected with Ahmed Khalifa in his place. Furthermore, Musa Saleem has taken the place of Hilal Al-Quds’s Mohammed Sammar as one of eight defenders in the squad. Mohammed Yameen and Islam Batran are other notable absences amongst the domestic contingent.
Several internationally based players have also not been called up. Badr Moussa has been left off the list due to his participation with the Olympic Team. A combination of injury and coronavirus restrictions have kept Nazmi Albadawi, Mohammed Rashid, Oday Dabbagh, Mohamed Darwish, and Saleh Chihadeh away from the traveling contingent.
The newsworthy call-ups come in the form of Fadi Zidan and Mahmoud Eid. The latter of which had not been called up to the squad since Singapore 2019. Zidan on the other hand had been a part of Abdel Nasser Barakat’s squads in 2015 and 2016 but had not featured since.
Both players forced their way back into consideration after taking bold steps in their careers. Mahmoud Eid was one of the best players in the Qatari second division last year producing five goals and three assists in 11 games and lifting the Second Division Cup.
Fadi Zidan’s circuitous route back to the national team included stops in six different clubs and a gamble move to a league outside of Palestine’s borders. Zidan has been remarkably successful in the Georgian League notching five goals and two assists in 18 games- playing a hand in 38% of the goals his team scored.
The rest of the squad is as follows:
