Patrick Yazbek (born 5 April 2002) is an Australian professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who plays as a

defensive 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

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

club

Nashville SC Nashville Soccer Club is a Major League Soccer team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The team began play in the league in 2020 as a continuation of the USL club of the same name and plays its home matches at Geodis Park. It is principally owned ...

and the Australia national team.

Early life

Having begun playing soccer aged three, Yazbek joined Austral Soccer Club's under-5s. In 2010, he moved

Football NSW Football NSW is the governing body for soccer in the Australian state of New South Wales, with the exception of the northern regions of NSW (the governing body for which is Northern New South Wales Football). Football NSW is a member of the nat ...

's "Skill Acquisition Program". Yazbek then played for other youth teams, namely Club Marconi,

Sydney United Sydney United 58 Football Club is a semi-professional soccer club and current NSW NPL Champions based in Edensor Park, Sydney, New South Wales Australia. The club was formed as Sydney Croatia in 1958, by Croatian Australians in the area, but it ...

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 ...

and

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

Club career

Sydney FC

After making the bench a few times during the

2020–21 A-League The 2020–21 A-League was the 44th season of national level soccer in Australia, and the 16th since the establishment of the A-League in 2004. The season was started on 28 December 2020 and concluded with the Grand Final on 27 June 2021. The st ...

season, Yazbek signed a two-year scholarship contract with

in July 2021. He made his senior debut in the

2021 FFA Cup The 2021 FFA Cup was the eighth season of the FFA Cup, the main national Association football, soccer single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Australia. Thirty-two teams contested the competition proper from the round of 32, i ...

round of 32, in a 4–2 victory over

Sydney Olympic Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional association football, soccer club, based in Belmore, New South Wales, Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales, that plays in the National Premier Leagues NSW. The Club was founded as Pan- ...

. Yazbek's

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 ...

debut came on 12 December 2021, as a substitute in a 2–0 defeat to

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 19 December, he made his starting debut for Sydney FC in a 2–1 win over

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the ...

Viking FK

On 2 February 2023, Norwegian

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion ...

club

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

announced the signing of Yazbek. On 15 April 2023, he scored his first goal for the club in a 2–0 home win against

Lillestrøm Lillestrøm is a municipality in Viken county. It is located in the traditional district of Romerike. With a population of 85,757 inhabitants, it is the fourth most populated municipality in Viken. It was founded on 1 January 2020 as a merger be ...

Nashville SC

On 22 July 2024, Yazbeck joined

club

International career

Yazbek was selected for the Australia national under-23 team ahead of their qualifiers for the

2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup The 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup was the 5th edition of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup (prior to 2021 known as the AFC U-23 Championship), a biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the ...

. He played in both of Australia's games 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 ...

in October 2021, helping his side qualify for the final tournament. In the 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup, Yazbek played six games; Australia finished in fourth place, losing the third place match against

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Yazbek was named in the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against

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 the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

, the country in which is parents were born in and who he was also eligible to represent. Lebanon manager

Miodrag Radulović Miodrag Radulović (; born 23 October 1967) is a Montenegrin professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Montenegro national team. Club career Born in Titograd, Montenegro, his football career began in 1980 at Bu ...

criticised Yazbek for his decision to represent Australia, saying he "would be better to be one of the leaders in our team than sitting on the bench or Australia" Yazbek didn't feature in the first match at

Western Sydney Stadium Western Sydney Stadium, commercially known as CommBank Stadium, is a multi-purpose rectangular stadium in Parramatta, within the Greater Western Sydney region, approximately west of Sydney CBD. It replaced the demolished Parramatta Stadium ...

on 21 March, but he did make his debut in the second match 5 days later at

Canberra Stadium Canberra Stadium (GIO Stadium for commercial reasons) is a facility primarily used for rugby league and rugby union games, located adjacent to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It is the largest sports v ...

, managing one assist for John Iredale in a 5–0 victory.

Style of play

In 2021, Yazbek described himself as a "hardworking

box-to-box 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 ...

Personal life

Born in Australia, Yazbek is of Lebanese descent. Growing up a Sydney FC supporter, Yazbek studied at Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School in

Carnes Hill Carnes Hill is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Carnes Hill is located 38 kilometres southwest of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local government area of the City of Liv ...

, and at Clancy Catholic College in West Hoxton. As of 2021, he was a

Construction Management Construction management (CM) is a professional service that uses specialized, project management techniques and software to oversee the planning, design, construction and closeout of a project. The purpose of Construction management is to control ...

student at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

Patrick Yazbek
at GameDay {{DEFAULTSORT:Yazbek, Patrick 2002 births Living people Soccer players from Sydney Australian people of Lebanese descent Sportspeople of Lebanese descent Australian men's soccer players Men's association football midfielders Marconi Stallions FC players Sydney United 58 FC players Western Sydney Wanderers FC players Sydney FC players Viking FK players Nashville SC players National Premier Leagues players A-League Men players Major League Soccer players Australian expatriate men's soccer players Australian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Australian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Australia men's youth international soccer players Australia men's international soccer players 2023 AFC Asian Cup players University of New South Wales alumni