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Ali El-Khatib
Ali El-Khatib (Arabic: عَلِيّ الْخَطِيب, Hebrew: עלי חטיב; born 18 March 1989) is a professional footballer who plays for Hapoel Umm al-Fahm. Born in Israel, he has represented the Palestine national team. Club careerEl-Khatib grew up in the Arab city of Shefa-'Amr in Northern Israel where he played for local side, Hapoel Shefa-'Amr.[1] He was brought to Palestinian club Jabal Al-Mukaber in by the coach, Samir Issa, in 2012. While playing for them, a controversy erupted over El-Khatib's contract. Hapoel Haifa had given him a trial after someone had informed the coach of El-Khatib's talents. He was then chosen to join the club after 5 or 10 minutes of his try-out. However, the signing caused an outrage with his previous club, who alleged that he had three-and-a-half years left on his contract, resulting in them taking the case to FIFA after a Tel Aviv District Court denied their appeal. El-Khatib denied that he signed a contract with the club, claiming that they had forged his signature on the contract. The president of Jabal Al-Mukaber compared Hapoel's action to that of a horse thief under the pretence that they stole a player who was under contract.[2] Hapoel HaifaIn a league match on April 1, 2012, he was involved in a mass brawl in which he was assaulted by staff members. The match, which was against Maccabi Petah Tikva, had ended with a free-kick goal for the hosts, Maccabi Petah Tikva. Immediately after the final whistle, the players went at each other. Petah Tikva's goalkeeping coach, Ami Ganish, had unprovokingly headbutted El-Khatib which knocked him down. Afterwards, Yigal Maman, a high-ranking employee kicked him in the head while he was on the ground, causing him to lose consciousness. El-Khatib had to be taken to the hospital and was treated for a fractured jaw and missing teeth. The two members of staff were detained by police.[3] Maccabi NetanyaIn June 2012 it was announced that Ali El-Khatib has joined Maccabi Netanya. International careerAs one of a growing number of Arab-Israelis playing professionally in the WBPL and representing Palestine internationally .[4] He stated his dream is to play for Israel, and also said "It would be wonderful if one day the Palestinian national team could play against the Israel national team. Then I would play the first half of the game with one team and the second half with the other team."[2] He received his first national team cap against Thailand in 2014 World Cup qualifying on July 23, 2011. He scored his first senior team goal in a friendly match against Bahrain, the 67th-minute goal proved to be the winner as the game ended 1–0. 11 days later, he scored his second goal in a crucial match against Sudan which secured Palestine passage to the 2011 Pan Arab Games semifinal. Career statisticsClub
InternationalAs of 31 January 2012
Honours
References
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