Talal Yousef
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Talal Yousif Mohammed, known mainly as Talal Yousif, is a Bahraini footballer currently playing with Kuwait SC of Kuwait. Talal plays mainly as an offensive midfeilder and sometimes as a striker. He plays the same role for the Bahrain national football team and his club Kuwait SC as Italy's Francesco Totti does for AS Roma and 2006 World Cup winners Italy. At 29 years of age Talal Yousif has had an illustrious career playing for a number of clubs, but at the moment he is supposedly retired from the National Team. He wears the famous number 13 shirt for both his club and his country.
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[edit] Start of Career
Talal started off his career with small club Isa Town. Known to Bahraini's as Madinat Isa. This is the club that produced fellow Bahraini football star Salman Ghuloom, or as he is more famousley known Salman Isa. Talal was a key player of Isa Town since he was very young and grew to become one of its most famous ever players. At one point Talal captained the Isa Town squad. After some amazing performances Big time Bahraini club Al Riffa, formerly known as West Riffa or Al Riffa Al Gharbi signed him along with Salman Isa for an undisclosed fee.
[edit] Al Riffa Club
After siging for Al Riffa Talal Yousif made a hudge impact. He helped them to the league tittle and the Crown Prince Cup and established himself as the superstar of Al Riffa. He became emmensly popular in Bahrain. He was especially known for his amazing free kicks and was nicknamed "The Beckham of Bahrain" for that. Even though there was hudge rivalry between the 3 big clubs of Bahraini football Al Riffa , Muharraq , and Al Ahli , all fans of all team simply adored Talal Yousif. He became even more popular for his funny goal celebrations. After he would scored he would run close to the corner flag and do his own dance at the end he would fall to the ground and his teammates would jump on him.
[edit] Asian Cup
During the 2004 Asian Cup , Talal Yousif peaked and put on his best performances. He scored two goals , one coming from his trademark free kick against feirce rivals Iran in the 3rd and 4th place playoff. Talal Yousif was named in the team of the tournament along with fellow Bahraini's A'ala Hubail , who was joint top scorer, and Mohamed Salmeen .In this tournament the Bahraini National Team had their best ever performance at a major tournament as they reached the semi finals. Talal Yousif was a major part of that success and after the tournament he was named Captain of the National team.
[edit] Kuwait SC
After the Asian Cup Success many of Bahrain's top players headed for Qatar although Talal opted for a move to Kuwait. He was later joined by immensely Talented Bahraini defender Hussain Ali Baba who was another former Al Riffa player. At Kuwait SC Talal became a firm fan favorite and his amazing displays made him one of the most respected Arab players in the world.
[edit] Retirement
After Bahrain failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup , Talal Yosif retired from international football. It was claimed that he retired although there was nothing for sure. However, he recently made a return to the international scene scoring a goal in a 2-1 win over Kuwait in the qualifying stage of the Asian Cup
