Céline Haidar was about to fulfill her dream of representing the Lebanese national team when she was injured during an Israeli attack in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Today, the 19-year-old football player is still in the ICU, in a coma.
A few weeks ago, when Israeli bombings increased in intensity in the southern neighborhood of Beirut, a Hezbollah fiefdom, Céline’s family took refuge in Baakline, a picturesque village nestled in the mountains.
“But Céline was forced to go to Beirut to study and graduate,” her father, Abbas Haiddar, told AFP from Saint-George hospital in the Lebanese capital.
“When there were evacuation and bombing warnings, she would leave the house and return at night to sleep,” he adds.
On Saturday, the day of the accident, her father called her to warn her about a new evacuation warning from the Israeli army, which precedes the attacks, and she left the house.
“After that, my wife called me to say that Céline was in the hospital,” he said. The young woman was seriously injured by a blow to the head during an attack in her neighborhood in Chiyah.
That day, the Israeli army intensely bombarded the southern neighborhood from morning to night, hitting at least ten points, especially in Chiyah.
“Brain hemorrhage”
The young woman was about to become captain of the Beirut Football Academy (BFA) first division women’s team, which won the championship last season.
She was supposed to join the national team for upcoming competitions, especially a match against Iran which was canceled in October due to the war. With the national under-18 team, she has already won the WAFF championship in 2022, which pits several teams from West Asia against each other.
A video published on social media moved internet users: the young woman is shown on the floor, with her face bloodied, while a young man kneeling next to her screams in pain.
“The attack was at close range (…) she received a blow to the head,” her mother, Sanaa Chahrour, told AFP. “My daughter had a brain hemorrhage and a cracked skull.”
She said her daughter had asked her on Saturday to prepare a dish that she liked to eat.
“An hour later, her friend called me to say she had hurt herself,” she said through tears.
“My daughter is a hero,” she says. “She’s going to get up and play again.”
“She dreamed of playing abroad, she said she wanted to be like (Cristiano) Ronaldo and (Lionel) Messi (…)”, continues her mother.
“They killed her dream (…) Now everyone is talking about her because she is injured, in a war that has nothing to do with her”, he adds.
“A fighter on the field”
“Doctors are monitoring her closely,” her father told AFP from the hospital, “but the damage is very significant, we hope it will resolve gradually.”
“We are paying for something that is not our fault,” he laments as he cries.
Israel launched a massive bombing campaign and ground offensive in Lebanon against pro-Iranian Hezbollah in late September.
Since cross-border firefights began in October 2023 in southern Lebanon on the border with Israel, more than 3,540 people have been killed, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, the vast majority since the escalation in September.
And among the victims are several sportspeople, according to media reports. The Lebanese Football Federation suspended all but one matches.
BFA team captain Ziad Saadé told AFP that the player is in an artificial coma: “Everyone must pray for her, so she can return to us.”
“On the field, she is a fighter. The link between defense and attack”, explains her coach, Samer Barbari, who visited the hospital with several players to show their support for Céline Haidar.
“She is an exceptional girl and an excellent player,” adds Barbari.
