BARCELONA: For the thousands of footballers plying their trade in Gaza the league table remains frozen after Ittihad Shujaiya’s 3-1 win over Hilal Gaza on Oct. 2, 2023. That victory gave Shujaiya a lead in the league that would come to a grinding halt in the aftermath of Oct. 7.
Mohammed Balah was one of many footballers caught in a perilous situation three years ago. It was not the first war he had lived through but the bombs were like nothing else he had experienced.
The ensuing genocide in Gaza has spared no one, let alone footballers. The latest figures from the Palestine Football Association show that Israel has killed 568 members of its football family.
Balah was able to escape the destruction of Gaza City with his family and ended up first in Khan Younis and eventually in a tent in Rafah.
The striker had carved out a career outside of Palestine since leaving his boyhood club Al-Sadaqa in 2017, playing for clubs in Jordan and Oman. He had returned for a brief half a season stint in 2021 before putting pen to paper with Al-Masry in Egypt.
An ACL injury would bring the biggest move of his career to a premature end and with the 2023 AFC Asian Cup on the horizon Balah knew he needed to play and score goals to put himself in the frame for the national team.
The plan was working until that fateful early autumn day that changed the lives of millions. Balah watched the AFC Asian Cup like most Gazans, from a makeshift tent when electricity and internet connectivity permitted it.
Injured and stuck in Gaza in the spring of 2024 a return to professional football seemed farfetched, but not to the man who was once nicknamed the “Ronaldo of Gaza.”
Getting out of Gaza in 2017 was arduous but Balah found a way. The timing was impeccable. At 23 he had just won the league, was the second-highest scorer, and voted as the best player. His career abroad led to lucrative contracts and he built a real estate portfolio in Gaza with the money he had saved.
In April 2024, that was all gone and he had just enough to pay the $7,000 demanded by Egyptian officials to travel over the Rafah crossing. The plan was to send for his pregnant wife Maryam shortly thereafter but Israel invaded Rafah in May 2024 and put a stop to the handful of daily border crossings taking place.
The striker has seen his son, Hamza, now 2 years old, only through a mobile screen.
Once in Egypt, Mohammed knew he had a chance to succeed but first he needed an operation on a broken toe and intense rehabilitation. This came at a time when Israel dropped 70,000 tonnes of bombs on Gaza in the first six months of the war.
“Six days a week, I trained. Six hours a day I never missed a training session,” the striker told Arab News.
“I wanted the world to see that Palestinians are not born to die — we are born to live, to strive, and to rise.”
As he returned to fitness, modest offers from Jordanian and Omani clubs arrived but Balah held out. He had faith that the punishing work he had put in with Dr. Mohammed Ali meant he was ready for a bigger challenge.
That challenge came in the form of Arab Contractors. The modest but proud club famous for launching the careers of Mohamed Salah and Mohamed El-Nenny had been relegated from the top-flight the previous season. They needed goals and gave Balah a one-week trial to see if he still had it in his boots — a contract soon followed.
Balah scored a brace on his debut with the club on Sept. 10, 2024, and would finish as the team’s top scorer in a season that culminated with the league trophy and a return to the Premier League.
Those heroics garnered the attention of Al-Shahiniya in the Qatar Stars League the following year where the goals continued to flow.
So impressive was the striker that Ehab Abu Jazar tried to add him to Palestine’s FIFA Arab Cup squad after Badr Moussa pulled out with injury. Only for administrators to miss the filing deadline by minutes.
A return to the national team would come as Balah graced the pitch against Kyrgyzstan this past June. It had been nearly seven years since his last game for the national team, a period that saw him miss games due to Israeli travel restrictions, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a torn ACL.
The 2,495 days between caps is by far the longest in Palestine’s history, a testament to the striker’s mentality.
The 33-year-old is now betting on himself to achieve even more having just signed with Lebanese giant Al-Ahed. The club has not lifted the league title in three seasons and last year’s fourth-place finish represents their worst campaign in that time.
Balah’s physical presence, experience, and nose for goal will be expected to help the team challenge for silverware this season. The striker is confident goals will come, and with them a first-ever AFC Asian Cup campaign with Palestine.
“There are a lot of talents in Gaza and maybe they will never get a chance to shine because of everything that has happened. Inshallah, I can be their ambassador and deliver their message to the world.”