Abdelatif Bahdari

Abdelatif Bahdari (Arabic: عبد اللطيف البهداري‎; born 20 February 1984) is a Palestinian professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Markaz Balata. From 2007 to 2020, he earned 71 caps for Palestine national football team.

Club career[]

Al-Wehdat[]

Bahdari began his fully fledged professional career when he moved to Jordanian powerhouse Al-Wahdat in the summer of 2009. His athleticism and power saw him become an automatic starter. In his first year, Bahdari and fellow countryman Ahmed Keshkesh helped Al-Wahdat secure the Jordan FA Cup. The 2010–11 season saw Bahdari move from strength to strength as an integral part of Al-Wahdat's historic quadruple winning team under the guidance of Croatian manager Dragan Talajic. In the league, Bahdari was part of a defence that conceded a mere 16 goals in 20 games, he also did his part on the other end of the pitch scoring twice in the league, once in the Cup semifinal against Kfarsoum, and the winner in the 2011 AFC Cup second round against Shurtan Guzar.

Hajer[]

Bahdari's fantastic season saw him attract the attention of many clubs in the West Bank, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. It was initially thought that Bahdari would join former manager Dragan Talajic at Kuwait SC. He was also heavily linked with Kuwaiti club Al-Nasr, he eventually signed with Shabab Al-Khaleel of the West Bank Premier League but the contract included a get-out clause if Bahdari received a professional contract from a club based abroad. On 1 July 2011 Bahdari signed a two-year deal with newly promoted Hajer Club of the Saudi Professional League. His salary (a rumored $280,000/yr.) would make him the best paid Palestinian athlete.^[1]

Bahdari captained Hajer on more than one occasion and was crucial in securing a second season in the Saudi topflight for the Al-Hasa-based side. Bahdari's was Hajer's second top-scorer with 3 league goals and was second, behind Tawfiq Buhumaid in total minutes played. Bahdari was never substituted in his 22 league appearances. He was only held out of 4 league matches due to card accumulation, threat of card accumulation, or injury.

International career[]

Abdelatif Bahdari captained the Palestinian national team in their first home World Cup qualifier against Afghanistan on 3 July 2011 in the absence of regular captain Ramzi Saleh. He took over the captaincy on a full-time basis in 2015 during 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification

International goals[]

Scores and results list Palestine's goal tally first.^[2]

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	6 September 2014	Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila, Philippines	Chinese Taipei	5–3	7–3	2014 Philippine Peace Cup
2.	29 March 2016	Dora International Stadium, Hebron, Palestine	Timor-Leste	7–0	7–0	2018 FIFA World Cup qualification
3.	10 November 2016	Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, Beirut, Lebanon	Lebanon	1–1	1–1	Friendly
4.	5 September 2017	Changlimithang Stadium, Thimphu, Bhutan	Bhutan	2–0	2–0	2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification
5.	10 October 2017	Dora International Stadium, Hebron, Palestine		1–0	10–0
6.				5–0
7.				6–0
8.	4 October 2018	Sylhet District Stadium, Sylhet, Bangladesh	Tajikistan	2–0	2–0	2018 Bangabandhu Cup
9.	11 June 2019	Dolen Omurzakov Stadium, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan	Kyrgyzstan	2–2	2–2	Friendly

Honours[]

Personal[]

Best Player, Bangabandhu Gold Cup: 2018

Club[]

Al-Wehdat[]

• Jordan Premier League: 2010–11, 2014–15
• Jordan FA Cup: 2009–10, 2010–11
• Jordan FA Shield: 2010
• Jordan Super Cup: 2009, 2010
• West Bank Premier League: 2015/16

National team[]

• AFC Challenge Cup: 2014
• Bangabandhu Gold Cup: 2018

References[]

External links[]

• Abdelatif Bahdari at National-Football-Teams.com
• Abdelatif Bahdari – FIFA competition record (archived)