Walid Badir

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Personal information
Walid Badir
Full name	Walid Badir
Date of birth	12 March 1974
Place of birth	Kafr Qasim, Israel
Position	Midfield
Club information
Current club	Hapoel Tel Aviv
Number	8
Youth clubs
1987-1989 1990-1992	Hapoel Kafr Qasim Hapoel Petah Tikva
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1992-1999 1999-2000 2000–2005 2005–present	Hapoel Petah Tikva Wimbledon F.C. (£1M) Maccabi Haifa (£250K) Hapoel Tel Aviv	? (?) 21 (1) 141 (28) 32 (5)
National team**
1997–present	Israel	61 (11)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 22 July 2006. ** National team caps and goals correct as of 30 June 2006.

Walid Badir (Hebrew: וואליד באדיר) (born March 12, 1974) is an Arab Israeli footballer currently at Hapoel Tel Aviv. He became a national hero for the 83rd-minute goal that gave Israel a tie against France in a 2006 World Cup qualifying match.

1 Playing career
- 1.1 Early career
- 1.2 Wimbledon
2 Maccabi Haifa
3 Notes

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Early career

Badir played early on for the youth clubs Hapoel Kafr Qasim and Hapoel Petah Tikva, and later was given a spot on second teams premier league roster. Petah Tikva, though always a worthy team in of itself, had reached its nadir in the mid-1960s, and since that golden age had failed to win a single championship. Badir, recognized early on as a valuable prospect who could widen the club's appeal in the Arab sector, turned into its marquee player, but Petah Tikva never became more than a middle-of-the-pack club during a decade when Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabi Haifa dominated the league. Petah Tikva also was limited by its seemingly endless financial woes, due to the lack of adequate ownership that could support it and expand its well-known hard core fanbase.

[edit] Wimbledon

During Walid Badir's time at Wimbledon F.C. he scored one league goal against Manchester United F.C. at Old Trafford. Wimbledon, like his previous club Petah Tikva, was troubled by financial instability, and Badir never was able to make a sufficient impact there.

[edit] Maccabi Haifa

Badir relocated to Maccabi Haifa in 2000-2001 at the beginning of the Avraham Grant era. Grant, a longtime manager of clubs like 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. In 2005, while the club began a major campaign to revamp the roster with South American players like Gustavo Boccoli and Roberto Colautti, Badir signed with Hapoel Tel-Aviv and became a major part of their 2005-06 season when they were runners-up to Haifa.