Ali Nasseredine

Ali Nasseredine^[1] (Arabic:علي ناصر الدين) - (born January 24, 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon) is a Lebanese footballer who currently plays for Al-Ansar in the Lebanese Premier League.

Club career

On October 31, 1997 Nasseredine was signed to the youth teams of Nejmeh.^[2] When Nejmeh took part in the 2004 AFC Cup Nasseredine had scored a double against Yemen's Al Sha'ab Ibb to win 3-0 in their opening group stage fixture on February 11, 2004. On April 6, 2004 he netted once more in a 3-1 win against Turkmenistan's Nisa Aşgabat as Nejmeh went on to eventually top the group with 16 points. They would meet Syria's Al-Wahda in the quarter-final stages where both teams had scored 4 goals each after the two legs, first losing 2-1 in Damascus following a 3-2 second-leg victory to Nejmeh on September 21, 2004 in which Nasseredine had scored, however, the Syrians advanced on the away goals rule. The following year saw Nejmeh top their group again in the 2005 AFC Cup where Nasseredine had not scored in the tournament until the quarter-final stages in a 3-2 win against Singapore's Home United FC. on September 28, 2005, as Nejmeh advanced to the semi-final stage, Nasseredine had scored the third goal in a first-leg 3-0 win against Hong Kong's Sun Hei. Two weeks later, on October 12, 2005 Nasseredine had scored again in a 3-2 second-leg victory which saw Nejmeh advance to the final where they would lose 4-2 on aggregate against Jordan's Al-Faisaly Amman. During the 2005-06 Lebanese Premier League season, Ali had finished as the league's leading goal scorer with 17 goals. In the 2006 edition of the AFC Cup, Nasseredine would score a hat-trick in Nejmeh's opening game, a 6-2 thrashing against Turkmenistan's HTTU Aşgabat^[3] on March 7, 2006. On May 16, 2006 Nasseredine would score a 65th minute winning goal in a 2-1 result against Jordan's Al Faisaly which was the final group stage fixture.^[4] On September 26, 2006 in the first leg of the semi-finals, Nasseredine had put Nejmeh ahead against Bahrain's Al-Muharraq on 21 minutes, only to end up losing the game 2-1.^[5] Nejmeh would then lose 4-2 in the second leg. In the 2007 AFC Cup, on March 20, 2007 Nasseredine scored an 89th-minute winner in a 2-1 victory against Al-Saqr of Yemen in the second group stage fixture. Nejmeh would finish on top of their group on 15 points, having only lost once.^[6] Nejmeh would go all the way to the semi-final's to be knocked out by Jordan's Shabab Al-Ordon Al-Qadisiya.

International career

On June 9, 2004, Nasseredine was substituted on to the field in the 81st minute in a 2006 World Cup qualifier against Maldives, he scored the third and final goal of the 3-0 victory in the 93rd minute.^[7] On September 8, 2004 Nasseredine would score a double in Lebanon's 5-2 win against Maldives in their World Cup qualifying second-leg match.^[8] On October 13, 2004 Lebanon would play Korea Republic in their second last game for their group stage clash, Korea only having been 1 point ahead of Lebanon on the group table, the game had been recognised as Lebanon's finest chance of qualifying to the Second round of qualifiers for the first time ever. In front of a sold-out crowd in Beirut's municipal stadium, Korea had scored in the opening goal in the 8th minute. Ali Nasseredine had dramatically equalised on 28 minutes when a back pass was played by a Korean defender, Korea's goal keeper Lee Woon-Jae had received the ball but fumbled which left Nasseredine to pass the ball into an un guarded net.^[9] As the game had ended 1-1, the point was not enough which left Lebanon to draw 0-0 in their closing game of the group stage. On February 22, 2006 Nasseredine had latched onto a free kick to head home an equaliser at 1-1 in the 70th minute in a qualifying match for the 2007 AFC Asian Cup against Kuwait in Beirut.

References

External links

• Ali Nasseredine at National-Football-Teams.com
• Ali Nasseredine profile at Soccerway