Omid Popalzay ( prs, امید پوپلزی; born 25 January 1996) is an Afghan footballer who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for club Nejmeh and the Afghanistan national team.

Youth

Before joining

Achilles '29 Achilles '29 is a football club from Groesbeek, Netherlands, competing in the sixth-tier Eerste Klasse. The club is known for its successes in the Dutch domestic cup, having knocked FC Volendam, Heracles Almelo, RKC Waalwijk, Telstar and MV ...

in 2015 Omid Popalzay played in the youth of SV Estria and N.E.C./FC Oss.

Career

Achilles '29

He signed in July 2015 his first professional contract for

. He was signed to play for the second team of

but was given a change for the first team after he impressed. On 11 September 2015 he made his debut for

against

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently compete in the Eredivisie, the top flight ...

. He scored his first goal in a 2–1 win against

FC Den Bosch FC Den Bosch () is a football club from 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. They were founded 18 August 1965, as FC Den Bosch/BVV. They are the successor of BVV (1906) and Wilhelmina (1890). Their stadium is called 'De Vliert', an 8,500 all-seater. R ...

. One week after the win against

he scored another goal and made an assist against

Jong PSV Jong PSV is a Dutch football team based in Eindhoven. It is the reserve team of PSV Eindhoven and plays in the Eerste Divisie since the 2013–14 season. History Until 2013, Jong PSV played in the Beloften Eredivisie, a league exclusively for ...

with the end result being a 3–2 win for

Australia and Belgium

In the beginning of 2019, Popalzay moved abroad to Australia and joined

Adelaide Comets FC Adelaide Comets FC are a soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The club competes in the National Premier Leagues South Australia. They are based in Adelaide's western suburb of Mile End and play home games at Santos Stadium. History ...

. In May 2019, he left the club to join Belgian club

Sint-Eloois-Winkel Sint-Eloois-Winkel is a village in the Belgian province of West Flanders. It is a '' deelgemeente'' of the municipality of Ledegem, separated from the center of the town by highway A17. The population of Sint-Eloois-Winkel is 3800, only a few hun ...

Olimpia Grudziądz

On 11 August 2020, Popalzay signed a contract with Polish club

Olimpia Grudziądz Olimpia Grudziądz is a Polish football club from Grudziądz. The club was formed on 30 June 1923. Currently, Olimpia plays in the III liga, following their relegation from the II liga in the 2020–21 season. On 1 March 2022, thanks to defea ...

Chittagong Abahani

On 22 November 2021, Popalzay joined

Bangladesh Premier League The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) ( bn, বাংলাদেশ প্রিমিয়ার লীগ) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league consisting of seven franchises. The BPL is one of the three professional cricket leagues in ...

club

Chittagong Abahani Chittagong Abahani Limited ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম আবাহনী লিমিটেড), also spelled as Chattogram Abahani or Chittagong Abahoni, is a sports club based in Chittagong, Bangladesh. A wing of Abahani Limited was ...

Ariana

After a failed move to

Kelantan Kelantan (; Jawi: ; Kelantanese Malay: ''Klate'') is a state in Malaysia. The capital is Kota Bharu and royal seat is Kubang Kerian. The honorific name of the state is ''Darul Naim'' (Jawi: ; "The Blissful Abode"). Kelantan is located in the ...

, Popalzay signed a deal with Swedish Ettan Fotboll club Ariana at the end of March 2023.

Nejmeh

On 11 June 2023, Popalzay joined Lebanese Premier League club Nejmeh.

International career

Omid Popalzay was called up for the Afghanistan national team for the World Cup Qualification match against

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

on 8 October 2015. They lost the match with 1–0 but Omid made his debut for his country. After this match he also played against Syria and Cambodia.

Personal life

Popalzay holds both Dutch and

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

passports.

Career statistics

Club

:''Statistics accurate as of last match played on 9 November 2016.'' ¹ Includes

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

and

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

matches. ² Includes

Johan Cruijff Shield The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national footbal ...

matches.

International

:''Scores and results list Afghanistan's goal tally first.''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Popalzay, Omid Living people 1996 births Afghan men's footballers Dutch men's footballers Afghan emigrants to the Netherlands Afghanistan men's international footballers Afghan expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Men's association football midfielders Eerste Divisie players II liga players Achilles '29 players Olimpia Grudziądz players Dutch people of Pashtun descent Footballers from Kabul Afghan expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Sint-Eloois-Winkel Sport players FC Lienden players Adelaide Comets FC players Nejmeh SC players Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Poland Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Australia Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Bangladesh Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Afghan expatriate sportspeople in Lebanon Expatriate men's footballers in Bangladesh Expatriate men's footballers in Lebanon