Receive news, analysis, and other content straight to your inbox by subscribing to Football Palestine (free or paid), here.
How does one determine if a player is underrated? It is all very subjective. Some players are so underrated that it becomes a fashionable talking point to talk about how underrated they are thus leading them to become somewhat overrated (see: any England utility player over the past 20 years).
Oday Dabbagh should be a name that every follower of Asian Football knows and counts as amongst one of the continent’s best. This might seem like bias coming from a Palestinian news outlet but rest assured this is an opinion that can be backed up by fact.
Look at what Dabbagh has done with modest sides in Europe’s Top 8 leagues. For two seasons he was Arouca’s best goal threat and in spite of limited playing time due to visa issues in his first season and a contractual dispute in his second- he still stands as the team’s third top scorer in the top flight on 11 goals. Across all competitions in Portugal he had 15 goals in 16 starts.
Those goals powered Arouca to its best ever finish in all three competitions. Thanks to Dabbagh’s goals the club played in the UEFA Conference League. Without Dabbagh’s goals this season they will be lucky to avoid relegation.
Perhaps Dabbagh’s biggest enemy is his own incredible scoring rate. This is why he has evolved into a #9 for his club teams and why we as fans consider it a crisis if the Jerusalemite has not scored in three games.
Unlike other highly touted Asian prospects. Dabbagh did not have the benefit of going to a stable, more established club in Europe. His good form in two seasons in Portugal generated zero interest from the big teams in the league who could have signed him on a free. When Dabbagh was free to negotiate with other clubs the offers that came his way were from the Russian League, Al-Ahly, and Saudi Arabia (who had the gaul to refuse to pay a transfer fee for him). Charleroi was the best option and to the club’s credit were willing to pay Arouca a fee even though the player had only six months on his contract.
Skeptics might point to his goal scoring clip slowing this season (4 goals, two goal involvements in 16 league starts plus a goal in the cup) but consider that Dabbagh has produced Mousa Al-Tamari’s output for two seasons in just half a campaign.
Charleroi are only one year into their new project with Felice Mazzu and there are teething problems but Dabbagh has been a bright spot in an otherwise middling campaign.
Stats don’t lie
If you want to really understand Dabbagh’s scoring prowess and ability just compare his goal scoring against that of the top Asian players. On December 3rd, 2023 Oday Dabbagh turned 25 years old. He had scored 110 goals for club and country before his 25th birthday. That number now includes:
10 for the national team
4 in the Belgian League
11 in the Portuguese Primeria
4 in Portuguese Cup Competitions
23 in the Kuwaiti League
1 in Kuwait FA Cup
5 in the AFC Cup
40 in the WBPL
12 in Palestine’s Cup competitions
This is a remarkable rate of scoring. Some might scoff given that nearly half the goals come during his time in Palestine. Keep in mind that Dabbagh scored his first professional goal three weeks after his 17th birthday and left Palestine after turning 20 having set the record for most goals scored by a Palestinian player in the AFC Cup. It is also worth noting how short a league season is in Palestine. Dabbagh’s 40 league goals came in the space of 77 league games and that run included many games where he came off the bench or did not play at all.
Football Palestine looked into how many goals some of Asia’s top stars scored before turning 25. Name an Asian football star- and Dabbagh has outscored him.
Sunil Chhetri. Check
Shinji Okazaki. Check.
Son Heung-Min. Check
Takumi Minamino. Check.
Al-Moez Ali. Check.
Akram Afif. Check.
Mehdi Taremi. Check.
Sardar Azmoun. Check.
Matthew Leckie. Check.
Eldor Shomurodov. Check.
Omar Khribin. Check.
Hassan Maatouk. Check.
Hamza Dardour. Check.
There are three players who have scored more goals before turning 25. All have spent the entirety of their careers on the Asian continent. Bader Al-Mutawa, Ali Mabkhout, and Omar Al-Somah.
In spite of all this, Transfermarkt has Dabbagh’s value listed at a paltry 1.5 million Euro. One gets the feeling that should Dabbagh and Al-Fida’i do well at the Asian Cup the narrative might change to one that more closely reflects the Jerusalemite’s skill and ability.
