Photo: AFP File
Lebanese footballer Celine Haidar was on the brink of realizing her dream of playing for the national women's team when debris from an Israeli strike left the 19-year-old in a medically induced coma. Following the outbreak of full-scale war in September, Haidar's family, like over a million others, fled south Beirut and other Hezbollah strongholds as Israeli bombs rained down. "But Celine had to return to (south) Beirut for her studies and training," her father Abbas Haidar told AFP. "She would leave the house after evacuation calls were issued or bombing intensified, then come back home at night to sleep," he said. Now, she is the latest athlete to fall victim to Israeli strikes, which have already forced the Lebanese Football Association to indefinitely postpone all domestic football competitions.
On Saturday, her father called her to warn of new evacuation orders published by the Israeli military online, and she left the house. But shortly after, "my wife called to tell me Celine was in the hospital," he said. She had been gravely injured in an Israeli strike on her home neighborhood of Shiyah, as the air force pounded Beirut's southern suburbs. Footage of Haidar lying unconscious on the ground, her face covered in blood, while a young man beside her cried in pain, went viral on Lebanese social media. "The strike was close and she was hit in the head," her mother Sanaa Sharhour told AFP. "My daughter has a brain hemorrhage, her skull is cracked." Sharhour said her daughter had sent her a message asking her to prepare her favorite dish, but "an hour later her friend called to say she had been wounded". "My daughter is a heroine, she will get up," she said, her eyes red with tears. "She dreamt of competing abroad. She said she wanted to be like (Cristiano) Ronaldo and (Lionel) Messi... She wanted to be a star and for everyone to talk about her." Now everyone is talking about her because she was wounded in a war that she has nothing to do with. "They killed her dream."
Haidar was a cornerstone of her club, Beirut Football Academy (BFA), which won the Lebanese Women's Football League last season without dropping a single point, and was set to captain the team this season. The midfielder was also part of the national women's Under-18 team that won the 2022 West Asian Football Federation championship. Now she is in a medically induced coma, according to team manager Ziad Saade. "The doctors are following her very closely," her father told AFP from the Saint-Georges Hospital in Beirut where his daughter is being treated. "But her injuries are serious, we hope she will gradually heal," he said with tears in his eyes. "We're paying the price for something that's not our fault." Lebanese authorities say more than 3,544 people have been killed since Hezbollah began trading fire with Israel in October last year, with most deaths recorded since Israel stepped up its campaign in September. "On the pitch, she's a fighter, she was the link between defense and attack," coach Samer Barbari said, as he and teammates visited her at the hospital. "She is an exceptional girl and an excellent player."
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