Kassem Mohammed El Zein ( ar, قاسم محمد الزين, ; born 2 December 1990) is a Lebanese

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a defender for club

Nejmeh Nejmeh Sporting Club ( ar, نادي النجمة الرياضي, lit=The Star Sporting Club) is a football club based in Manara, a district in Ras Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, that competes in the . The club was established in Beirut in 1945, and ...

and the Lebanon national team. El Zein began his senior career in 2011 at Nejmeh, playing over 100 league matches. In 2020 he was sent on a loan, to Iraqi club

Al-Mina'a Al-Minaa Sports Club ( ar, نادي الميناء الرياضي, lit=Port Sports Club) is an Iraqi multi-sport club based in Al-Maqal, Basra that participates in the Iraq Division One, the second tier of Iraqi football. It is one of the mo ...

and Kuwaiti club Al-Nasr, respectively. El Zein made his international debut for Lebanon in 2014, and was part of the

2019 AFC Asian Cup The 2019 AFC Asian Cup was the 17th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in the United Arab Emirates from 5 January to 1 F ...

squad.

Club career

Al-Mina'a

On 28 January 2020, El Zein was sent on a three-month loan to

Iraqi Premier League The Iraqi Premier League ( ar, الدوري العراقي الممتاز) is the top level of the Iraqi football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it is operated by the Iraq Football Association (IFA) and operates on a system of promotion ...

side

. He made his debut on 17 February 2020, in a 1–0 home win over Naft Al-Janoob in the first matchday of the season. El Zein played four league games for Al-Mina'a; however, the season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Al-Nasr

On 18 June 2020, El Zein was sent on a one-year loan to Kuwaiti club Al-Nasr. He made his debut on 16 October, in a 2–1 win against Al-Shabab in the classification league between

Kuwait Premier League The Kuwait Premier League (), known as STC Premier League due to sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Kuwait football pyramid system. Formed in 1961, Al-Arabi, Qadsia and Kuwait both hold the best record in the competition, having won ...

and

Kuwaiti Division One The Kuwaiti Division One is a second-tier professional Kuwaiti football league. Winners of the league are promoted to the Kuwait Premier League. Kuwaiti Division One was introduced for the 2006–07 season, when the bottom 6 clubs in the Premier ...

clubs. El Zein helped his side finish first in the qualifying stage. His debut in the 2020–21 Kuwaiti Premier League came on 22 January 2021, in a 1–0 away win against Al-Shabab. El Zein scored a goal on 25 April, helping his side to a 2–1 away win against Al-Fahaheel. He finished the season with 17 league games.

Nejmeh

El Zein returned to Nejmeh for the 2021–22 season. His contract was renewed in 2022.

International career

El Zein debuted for the Lebanon national team on 14 October 2014, in a friendly against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. In December 2018, he was called up for the

, where he played a group stage game against Saudi Arabia. El Zein scored his first international goal against

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on 10 September 2023, to help Lebanon finish third in the

2023 King's Cup The 2023 Annual King's Cup Football Tournament ( th, ฟุตบอลชิงถ้วยพระราชทานคิงส์คัพ 2023), commonly referred to as 2023 King's Cup, will be the 49th King's Cup, the annual internationa ...

Style of play

Initially starting out as a full-back, El Zein progressed into a centre-back with the years; his main abilities are his tackling and reading of the game.

Personal life

El Zein works as a part-time chef at ''L'Avenue Du Parc'', a restaurant in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

. He stated that "while in other countries football can be a full-time job, in Lebanon it’s necessary for a player to have a second job." El Zein's favourite club is Manchester United, while his favourite player is former Manchester United defender

Nemanja Vidić Nemanja Vidić ( sr-Cyrl, Немања Видић, ; born 21 October 1981) is a Serbian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He is best known for his time at Manchester United, was part of the Serbia national team, and ...

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Lebanon's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each El Zein goal''.

Honours

Nejmeh *

Lebanese Premier League The Lebanese First Division ( ar, الدوري اللبناني الدرجة الأولى), commonly known as the Lebanese Premier League (), is the top division of the Lebanese football league system. There are 12 teams competing in the league, ...

: 2013–14 *

Lebanese FA Cup The Lebanon Cup (), commonly known as the Lebanese FA Cup, is a Lebanese football annual cup competition. The first edition, held in 1937, was won by Nahda. The most successful club in the competition is Ansar with 15 titles, followed by Nejmeh ...

: 2015–16, 2021–22,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Lebanese Elite Cup The Lebanese Elite Cup () is a Lebanese football annual cup competition contested by the top six teams of the previous Lebanese Premier League season. Founded in 1996 as the Super League Cup, the first edition was contested by the top five finish ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

Lebanese Super Cup The Lebanese Super Cup () is Lebanese football's annual match contested between the champions of the previous Lebanese Premier League season and the holders of the Lebanese FA Cup. If the Lebanese Premier League champions also won the Lebanese FA ...

: 2014, 2016,

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

; runner-up:

Individual *

Lebanese Premier League Team of the Season The Al-Manar Football Festival () was an event organised by the Al-Manar television station between the 1996–97 and 2018–19 seasons in order to award players, managers, referees and teams who were considered to have performed the best over ...

: 2018–19

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zein, Kassem 1990 births Living people Lebanese men's footballers Lebanese chefs People from Tyre District Men's association football defenders Men's association football central defenders Men's association football fullbacks Lebanese Premier League players Nejmeh SC players Lebanese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Iraq Lebanese expatriate sportspeople in Iraq Iraq Stars League players Al-Minaa SC players Expatriate men's footballers in Kuwait Lebanese expatriate sportspeople in Kuwait Kuwait Premier League players Al-Nasr SC (Kuwait) players Lebanon men's international footballers 2019 AFC Asian Cup players