"It was written in Arabic, and with the help of Google Translate, he managed to figure out that it was a call-up to go to Ramallah, in the West Bank. The first thing I did was check if the guy writing to me was really the national team coach, and then I found out that I was being called up to play for the national team. Hamed was 22 years old and at the time played for Portugalete in the Spanish Third Division."
"His father arrived in Spain in the 1970s to study medicine. He finished his degree and settled in the Basque Country, where he met his wife. They moved to Leioa to raise a Basque family with five children. He never went back to Gaza. He didn't instill in us the struggle of the Palestinian people or anything like that. Yaser didn't grow up surrounded by demonstrations or activism, but his role on the Palestinian national team has made him an idol and a well-known ambassador"
"When she found out who I was, she wanted to thank me for what I was doing for Palestine. It's amazing, Hamed recounts from Doha, where he plays for Al-Gharafa in the Qatar Stars League. Since his first trip to Ramallah in 2019, Hamed has become increasingly aware of the importance of soccer for Palestinians. The national team now plays its home matches in Qatar and is one of Palestine's main diplomatic assets."
Some 50,000 fans are expected to attend a November 15 match in Bilbao, with a presentation held in Gernika on October 4. Yaser Hamed grew up in Leioa near Bilbao after his father moved to Spain in the 1970s to study medicine and settled in the Basque Country. Hamed received a 2019 call-up to play for Palestine while playing in Spain's Third Division, scored on his debut versus Yemen, and later signed for Al-Gharafa in the Qatar Stars League. The Palestinian national team now hosts matches in Qatar and serves as an important diplomatic asset; the team advanced during the 2023 conflict with Israel.
Read at english.elpais.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]