Mario Shabow (born 5 May 1998) is an Australian professional football player. He currently plays for

Blacktown City FC Blacktown City Football Club is an Australian semi-professional football club based in Blacktown, New South Wales. Founded in 1953, the club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues NSW. Blacktown City's home ground is Blacktown City S ...

Early life

Shabow was born in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. At the age of six, his family moved to Australia in 2004, due to the unsettled war-torn country. Shabow who is of Assyrian ethnicity, attended

Hoxton Park High School Hoxton Park High School is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive secondary day school, located in , a south-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1974 in what was then a rural district, the school ...

and played for the juniors Liverpool Olympic local soccer club. Growing up in the suburbs of Western sydney, Shabow was also playing for the premier league Sydney City Eagles Futsal (football) club. He was chosen to represent NSW in the indoor

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

National championships. He gained more experience playing for the

Marconi Stallions Marconi Stallions Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in Fairfield, Sydney, New South Wales. The club has been crowned Australian champion four times. The Stallions are the soccer team of Club Marconi, a social ...

and

and attracted attention from various

A-league A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

clubs through competing in the NSW National Premier League.

Club career

Western Sydney Wanderers

While playing for

Blacktown City Blacktown City Council is a local government area in Western Sydney, situated on the Cumberland Plain, approximately west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1906 as the Blacktow ...

in 2014, Shabow was called up for the pre season friendly games with the Western Sydney Wanderers squad. After impressive pre season performances, he was selected to play for the Western Sydney Wanderers Youth squad. He immediately made an impact in assisting and scoring goals which caught the attention of former senior wanderers Head coach

Tony Popovic Tony Popovic (born 4 July 1973) is an Australian association football manager and former player. He is the current manager of A-League club Melbourne Victory. As a player Popovic's usual position was centre-back. Starting in 1989 at Sydney Un ...

. On 29 November 2015, Shabow made his senior club debut as substitute coming on in the 80th minute for

Romeo Castelen Romeo Erwin Marius Castelen (born 3 May 1983) is a Dutch former footballer who played as a right winger. Club career ADO Den Haag Born in Paramaribo, Suriname, Castelen started his professional career with ADO Den Haag, playing two full seasons ...

, away to the Central Coast Mariners. On 11 May 2016, Western Sydney Wanderers signed Shabow on a one-year senior contract, becoming one of the first players to join from the Wanderers Youth Academy for the 2016–2017 A League Season. His second appearance for the Wanderers came on 21 February 2017, in the

Asian Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

group stage qualifier against

Urawa Reds , colloquially Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, is a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan. The club plays in the J ...

Campbelltown Stadium Campbelltown Stadium, formerly Orana Park and Campbelltown Sports Ground, is a multi-use stadium in Leumeah, New South Wales, Australia, owned by Campbelltown City Council. It is the home ground of the Western Suburbs Magpies and the Wests Ti ...

, Coming on in the 69th minute. Western Sydney Wanderers were defeated 4–0 on the night.

Newcastle Jets

On 5 April 2017, Shabow signed a two-year contract with

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from The Australia ...

, linking him up with the team at the start of the

2017–18 A-League The 2017–18 A-League was the 41st season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the 13th since the establishment of the A-League in 2004. The season began on 6 October 2017 and ended with the Grand Final on 5 May 2018. Sydney FC won the A-Le ...

season. Shabow's decision to join the club was to gain more first team opportunities. On 29 October 2017, Shabow made his Newcastle Jets debut coming on as a substitute in the 84th minute against the

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, or simply as Wanderers) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier ...

. In June 2018, Shabow Departed the club after one season by mutual agreement. He made seven appearances for the club.

Central Coast Mariners

On 7 June 2018, Shabow signed a two-year contract with

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

side

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Ma ...

. On 11 November 2018, he made his first appearance for The Mariners away to

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory e ...

, scoring a goal with his first touch of the ball in the 62nd minute of the game, after coming on as a second-half substitute. On 23 December 2018, Shabow made his starting debut for Central Coast Mariners at home against

. Shabow was released by the Mariners in March 2020. He joined

, which compete in the

National Premier Leagues NSW The National Premier Leagues NSW is a semi-professional soccer competition in New South Wales, Australia. The competition is conducted by Football NSW, the organising body in New South Wales (the other being the National Premier Leagues Northern ...

International career

Australia Under 20

In 2015, Shabow was selected to represent the

Young Socceroos The Australia national under-20 soccer team, known colloquially as the Young Socceroos, represents Australia in international under-20 soccer. The team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia (FA), which ...

, despite being eligible to play for his heritage country

, for the AFC U-19 Championship Qualifiers which were held in

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

. In his second appearance for the Young Socceroos, he scored a second half goal which earned them a 2–0 win over Laos. In September 2016, Shabow was selected in the squad for the

2016 AFF U-19 Youth Championship The 2016 AFF U-19 Youth Championship was the 14th edition of the AFF U-19 Youth Championship, organised by the ASEAN Football Federation, and known for sponsorship reasons as the AFF Vietcombank U19 Championship. It was hosted by Vietnam for the s ...

, which was held in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. He helped the team with goals against

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and

in the group stage. Shabow was again named in squad for the 2016

AFC U-19 Championship The AFC U-20 Asian Cup, formerly known as the AFC Youth Championship and AFC U-19 Championship, is a biennial international association football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-20 national teams ...

. In their opening game against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, He scored a goal giving the Young Socceroos a 1–0 victory.

Honours

International

;Australia U20 *

AFF U-19 Youth Championship The AFF U-19 Youth Championship is an annual international football competition contested by the national teams of the members of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and occasionally invited nations from the rest of Asia. The tournament was pre ...

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 trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shabow, Mario 1998 births Living people Western Sydney Wanderers FC players Newcastle Jets FC players Central Coast Mariners FC players A-League Men players National Premier Leagues players Soccer players from Sydney Iraqi emigrants to Australia Sportspeople from Baghdad Australian people of Iraqi-Assyrian descent Association football midfielders Assyrian footballers