Walid Badir

Walid Badir

Badir playing for Hapoel Tel Aviv in 2010
Personal information
Full name	Walid Badir
Date of birth	(1974-03-12) 12 March 1974
Place of birth	Kafr Qasim, Israel
Height
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Hapoel Tel Aviv (assistant)
Youth career
1987–1989	Hapoel Kafr Qasim
1990–1992	Hapoel Petah Tikva
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1992–1999	Hapoel Petah Tikva	153	(19)
1999–2000	Wimbledon	21	(1)
2000–2005	Maccabi Haifa	141	(28)
2005–2013	Hapoel Tel Aviv	237	(24)
International career‡
1997–2007	Israel	74	(12)
Managerial career
2015–	Hapoel Tel Aviv (assistant)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 18 May 2013 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 30 June 2007

Walid Badir (Arabic: وليد بدير‎‎, Hebrew: ואליד באדיר‎; born March 12, 1974) is a retired Arab-Israeli football player, who played as a midfielder.

He won four league titles in five seasons with Maccabi Haifa before joining Hapoel Tel Aviv in 2005. He served as their captain, and won a further league title before retiring in 2013.

Badir scored 12 goals in 74 games for the Israel national football team between 1997 and 2007.

Club career

Early career

Badir was recognized early on as a valuable prospect, and played for the youth clubs Hapoel Kafr Qasim and Hapoel Petah Tikva, and later was given a spot on the second team's Premier League squad. Badir played for Petach Tikva for 7 consecutive seasons (1992–1997) and scored 19 goals.

Wimbledon

During Badir's time at Wimbledon he scored one league goal against Manchester United at Old Trafford. However, other than this he did not make a major impact in his time with the club.

Maccabi Haifa

Badir returned to Israel to Maccabi Haifa in 2000–01 at the beginning of the Avram Grant era. Grant, a longtime manager of clubs including Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabi Tel Aviv, moulded from young players like Badir and Yossi Benayoun one of the most dangerous clubs in the history of Israeli football. With Badir, Haifa would win four championships, failing only once, in 2002–03 when Maccabi Tel Aviv won the title.

Hapoel Tel Aviv

In 2005, while Haifa began a major campaign to revamp the squad with South American players such ad Gustavo Boccoli and Roberto Colautti, Badir signed with Hapoel Tel Aviv. He became a major part of their 2005–06 season when they were runners-up to his former team and State Cup winners. He was awarded the captaincy of the team and held it until his retirement.

On 26 August 2013, in Bloomfield Stadium, the club and its fans made a thankful standing ovation in honour of Badir's last appearance with Hapoel Tel Aviv before formally retiring.

Coaching career

17 November 2012, Badir was appointed as caretaker manager for Hapoel Tel Aviv.

International career

Badir appeared in 74 games with the Israel national football team, and scored 12 goals. His first appearance was on 5 August 1997 in a friendly match against Belarus (3–2).

One of his most notable games was his 83rd-minute goal in Israel's draw against France in a 2006 World Cup qualifying match.

Honours

• Israeli Premier League (5):
  • 2000–01, 2001–02, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2009–10
• Toto Cup (1):
  • 2002–03
• Israel State Cup (5):
  • 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012

External links

• Walid Badir career statistics at Soccerbase
• Walid Badir at National-Football-Teams.com