Khaled Mohamad Takaji ( ar, خالد محمد التكه جي; born 18 November 1986) 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 ...

and former

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is ...

player who plays as a forward for club Safa.

Club career

Takaji signed for

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, ...

side

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 ...

's youth sector on 4 August 2000; he was promoted to the first team ahead of the 2006–07 season. In 2008, Takaji decided to pursue a career as a

player, joining Pro's Cafe Beirut, with whom he played at the 2010 AFC Futsal Club Championship. He then played for Sadaka and All Sports Club at the 2011 and 2012 AFC Futsal Club Championships, respectively. On 23 August 2012, Takaji returned to Nejmeh. In June 2016, Takaji played at the 2016 AFC Futsal Club Championship for Mayadeen. He moved to Ansar, Nejmeh's

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

, on 3 August 2017. After one season, on 28 August 2018, Takaji joined Akhaa Ahli Aley. Takaji returned to Nejmeh for a second time ahead of the 2019–20 season. He renewed his contract for one year on 4 August 2020, and for another year on 1 July 2021, following the 2020–21 season where he scored four goals and made six assists. On 23 August 2022, Takaji signed for Bourj on a free transfer. He moved to Safa on 23 July 2023.

International career

Takaji represented

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

internationally in futsal, playing at the 2007,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, 2010, and 2012 AFC Futsal Championships, captaining Lebanon in the last edition. With 13 goals, Takaji was the 2008 Arab Futsal Championship top scorer, and was awarded the Best Player award. He also helped Lebanon to a sixth-place finish at the

2010 Mediterranean Futsal Cup The Mediterranean Futsal Cup was an international futsal competition, this was the first edition of the competition. Participating The following 16 teams, shown with final pre-tournament rankings. ; AFC (3) * * * ; CAF (4) * * * * ...

. Takaji also played for the Lebanon national football team in 2015, in two friendly games against Syria and

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, and a

2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

game against Laos.

Style of play

A versatile forward, Takaji is capable of playing as a

second striker Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

or a winger.

Personal life

Takaji is married to Mariam Hamadani. She gave birth to their daughter Celine on 2 October 2018.

Honours

Nejmeh *

: 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; runner-up: 2014–15,

2020–21 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 ...

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 ...

; runner-up: 2013 *

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; 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 ...

: 2013–14, 2014–15

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Takaji, Khaled 1986 births Living people Footballers from Beirut Lebanese men's futsal players Lebanese men's footballers Futsal forwards Men's association football forwards Men's association football wingers Sadaka SC futsal players Nejmeh SC players Al Ansar FC players Akhaa Ahli Aley FC players Bourj FC players Safa SC players Lebanese Premier League players Lebanon men's international footballers