Ali Nizar Hamam ( ar, علي نزار حمام; born 25 August 1986) is a Lebanese professional

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

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

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 ...

, whom he

captains Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. Starting his career at Taqadom Anqoun, Hamam moved to Ahli Saida in 2006, helping them reach promotion to the Lebanese Premier League. In 2008 he joined Nejmeh, where he won the league twice, the Super Cup once and the Elite Cup once. After six seasons at the club, Hamam moved to Iran at Zob Ahan, where he won the

Hazfi Cup Hazfi Cup (Jām-e Hazfi; ) is the Iranian football knockout cup competition, run by the Iranian Football Federation. The Iranian football league was not held during the 1980s, hence the winner of Hazfi Cup represented Iran in the Asian Club Ch ...

twice, and the Super Cup once. He returned to Nejmeh in 2018, winning the Elite Cup in his first season. Hamam represented the Lebanon national team between 2009 and 2019; he has been capped 56 times, scoring three goals. Hamam was part of the team that played in 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 ...

, Lebanon's first participation through regular qualification.

Club career

Hamam started his career with Taqadom Anqoun, before joining Ahli Saida in 2006, who had just gained promotion to the

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, ...

. After finishing in seventh place in 2006–07, his team finished in last place in the 2007–08 season, and was relegated back to the Second Division. Hamam, however, remained in the top-flight, moving to

. He played for

from 2008 to 2014 season, winning the league twice, once in the first season and another in his last season, as well as one

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 ...

and one

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 ...

, both in 2014. In 2014, he transferred to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

to play for Zob Ahan for an estimated price of around €200,000. He won the

twice, in 2014–15 and 2015–16, and the

Iranian Super Cup The Iranian Super Cup ( Persian: سوپر جام ایران, ''Super Jam-e 'Iran'') is an Iranian association football trophy awarded to the winner of a match between the Persian Gulf Pro League's season champion and the winner of the Hazfi Cup. I ...

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 ...

. He played 80 league matches, scoring four times for the Iranian club. In 2020, Hamam was voted best right-back of the

2016 AFC Champions League The 2016 AFC Champions League was the 35th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 14th under the current AFC Champions League title. Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors defeated Al-Ain ...

. Four years later, in 2018, he returned to Nejmeh. He won the

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 ...

International career

In December 2018, Hamam was called up for the

. On 16 October 2019, Hamam announced his retirement from international football, with three goals in 56 matches.

Style of play

Hamam's main qualities are his experience on the field and his defensive abilities, as well as his attacking threat.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Nejmeh *

: 2008–09, 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 ...

: 2021–22; runner-up:

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 ...

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 ...

: 2009; runner-up:

Zob Ahan * Iranian Hazfi Cup: 2014–15, 2015–16 *

Individual *

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

All-time Lebanon Men's Dream Team * Fans' Asian Champions League XI:

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 ...

: 2008–09, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14

References

External links

*
Ali Hamam
at

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around th ...

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamam, Ali Lebanese footballers Lebanon international footballers Association football fullbacks 1986 births Living people People from Sidon District Lebanese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Iran Lebanese expatriate sportspeople in Iran Lebanese Premier League players Persian Gulf Pro League players Nejmeh SC players Zob Ahan Esfahan F.C. players 2019 AFC Asian Cup players