Category: Youth Football

U-20 National team called up

Lebanon will take part of the U-20 Arab Cup championship that will start on 20 June in Egypt. That’s why coach Fadi Oumari has called up 23 players for the national team.

21 local players and they are:
Rami Majalli, Charif Azzaki, Mohammad El Moussawi, Mahmoud Zbib, Ali Akbar Mannah (Ahed) Mohammad Ghamloush, Ali Kassas, Ali Reda Ismail, Yasser Dimachk (Nejmeh) Mohammad Safwan, Eid Jeshi (Bourj) Mohammad Serdah, Zakaria Chalhoub (Chabab Ghazieh) Omar Bahlawan, Ziad Jamaleddine (Ansar) Rayn Nassereddine (Sharek) Karim Arab (Tadamon Sour) Karim Khanafer (Safa) Oscar Ghantous (Salam Zgharta) Ali Fadel (Shabab Sahel) Mohammad Sadek (Tripoli).

2 other players will join from abroad. Sami Afiouni is a defensive midfielder who plays at Tooting and Mitcham United FC in English 8th division and Ibrahim Chami, a left back who plays at FC Laval in Quebec’s youth league.

Lebanon will feature in the third group, alongside title defenders Senegal, Iraq and Comores. 2 teams advance to the second round of the tournament.

New friendlies for the Under 23’s

The Young Cedars will travel to Dubai to face the United Arab Emirates U-23’s on June 10 and 14. The olympic team will come back to Beirut to face their counterparts, Kuwait, on June 18, 21 and 24 , and Syria, on 3 and 6 July.

Historically, Lebanon national youth teams have suffered from a lack of preparations before official matches. But it seems this time it’s different, with 7 friendlies to be played in less than a month.

The Young Cedars are preparing for the 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification which will be played in late October 2021.

Football is back!

The Lebanese football association has just announced that the league will resume on the 19th of March after its stoppage since early January.

According to the LFA, the Premier League will restart on the 19th of March while the second division will restart on the 21st. The first round of the Third division will be played on the same day of the Premier League.

In what concerns the youth leagues, the men U-20 league will be back in 13th of March while the men U-16 and women U-19 will restart on the 14th of March.

No information about the FA cup yet!

The U-22 national team squad announced

Lebanon will face Iraq on January 5 and 9 in the stadium of Karbala. The two games will be preparatory for the upcoming competition as Iraq are known to be good at youth levels. The Cedars will participate next October in the 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup.

The coaching staff have called-up 23 players.

Hassan Srour, Ahed midfield player, who caught the covid-19 won’t be able to join the national team.

Due to the restrictions, the goalkeeper Tarek Najia and the striker Hady Ghandour cannot leave Great Britain.

The called-up players are:

Hadi Mortada (Ansar)
Mohammad Zaher (Sporting)
Mohammad Bechara (Nejmeh)
Hadi Madi (Chabab Ghazieh)
Mohammad Al Husseini (Ahed)
Hassan Kraytem (Tripoli)
Andrew Sawaya (Nejmeh)
Mohammad Hayek (Ahed)
Youssef Al Haj (Safa)
Zain El Abidin Farran (Bourj)
Mahdi Zein (Nejmeh)
Karim Mekkaoui (Racing)
Khalil Bader (Nejmeh)
Hussein Fahes (Sagesse)
Daniel Abou Fakher (Akhaa Ahli Aley)
Mohammad Shour (Safa)
Kassem Hayek (Safa)
Ali Al Haj (Safa)
Mohammad Nasser (Bourj)
Hussein Awada (Shabab Al Bourj)
Hassan Kanaan (Free Agent)
Ali Kharroubi (Akhaa Ahli Aley)
Hassan Sharqawi (Tadamon Sour)
Mehdi Tlays (Shabab Al Bourj)
Toni Mikhael (Canada)

Football is back… yet again!

After a sudden stop after matchday 6, football seems to make yet another comeback.

In their latest circular, the Lebanese Football Association has announced that the Premier League will resume on 8 December, while the Second Division will resume on 11 December.

The women’s preparatory championship will return on 5 December alongside the U-15 girls’ championship. The U-19 girls’ championship will return alongside the U-20 and U-16 boys championship on 13 December.

Lebanon’s U-17’s head to Qatar

The U17 Lebanese National Team have taken off to Qatar earlier today in pursuit of a training camp.

The young Cedars will be playing two friendly matches against Qatar’s U17s at the Aspire Academy on the 12th and 15th of November.

Leading the squad will be head coach Fadi Omari and the 23 selected players are:

Goalkeepers

Rami Majalli
Sharif Azaki
Antoine Al Hajj

Defenders

Christian Abdel Malak
Abbas Kanso
Hassan Chemali
Zakaria Chalhoub
Mohamad Safwan
Karim Khanafer
Ali Rida Ismail

Midfielders

Michel Feghali
Hassan Kawam
Mahmoud Zbib
Yasser Dimashk
Ali Al Fadel
Oscar Ghantous
Ali Al Akbar Mannah

Forwards

Khaled Hajjar
Mohammad Ghamloush
Mohammad Sadek
Abdallah Fakih
Omar Bahlawan
Chris Issa

Two members of the squad are currently playing in Lebanon’s first division, with Mohamad Sadek as one of AC Tripoli’s forwards, and Oscar Ghantous who has played 483 minutes so far with Salam Zgharta.

Official: Jamal Al Hajj is the new U-22 National Team coach

In an official statement, the Lebanese Football Association has announced the appointment of coach Jamal Al Hajj as the new coach of the U-22 National team.

Al Hajj, 49, is a well-known football player who played with Nejmeh and Al Ahed. He won the Lebanese Premier League 4 times, the Lebanese FA Cup twice, the Elite Cup 5 times and the super cup twice.

As a manager, Al Hajj has been announced as the head coach of Nejmeh SC in 2016 only for him to leave after 2 years

There will be no changes to the rest of the staff. Bilal Flayfel is the assistant coach and Ziad Samad is the goalkeeping coach.

LFA cancels all on-going tournaments and postpone the Premier League

In an official circular, the Lebanese Football Association (LFA) has announced the cancellation of the “Elite and Challenge Cup” and the U-17 men’s and U-19 women’s leagues of the 2019-2020 season.

This decision comes after the government decided to close the football stadiums, among other measures, in the hope to fight the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

In this circular, the LFA has also decided to postpone the start of the 2020-2021 premier league, which was supposed to start on the 18th of September, and the beach football league to a date that would be determined in a later time.

The AFC and FIFA have already cancelled both International football windows of 2020 that were meant to occur in October and November. This would give the LFA an extra of 2 weeks in its local football calendar.