It’s late afternoon on a warm Saturday in April at Aqaba Stadium in Jordan, and Miral Qassis is about to take a penalty that would secure Palestine a first trophy in women's football at any level.
Clear underdogs against a more experienced and better-funded Jordan in the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) U20 Women’s Championship final, Palestine held the hosts to a 1-1 draw in regulation time and were up 3-2 in the penalty shoot-out with just one attempt to go for each side.
Qassis, an 18-year-old from Bethlehem, felt the weight of the world on her shoulders.
“The position I was put in was very difficult. For the first time in my life, I was scared to shoot a penalty,” Qassis tells The National on a Zoom interview as she reflects on that historic moment.
She had already scored a hat-trick in Palestine’s 9-0 victory over Kuwait earlier in the tournament, but this was a different beast and she knew she had to step up.
Palestine had lost to Jordan 3-0 just four days earlier, in the round-robin stage, and now it was on Qassis to flip the script.
Her left-footed effort whizzed past goalkeeper Celine Seif and within a second her entire team was on top of her celebrating.
“It felt great that me, Miral, was able to score the winning penalty for my national team, at a time of war like this. It was an indescribable feeling,” she said.
“We were all in tears when we won. We are the first national team to win any sort of title since the start of women’s football in Palestine.”
They’re also the first Palestinian side, women or men, to clinch a West Asian title.
It’s a remarkable achievement, especially considering all professional football has been suspended in Palestine due to the ongoing attacks on Gaza by Israel.
The U20 women’s squad is mostly comprised of Palestinians living in all corners of the globe. The team got together only two days before the tournament started.
It was a short flight to Aqaba from Cairo for Qassis, where she recently signed a contract with Zamalek, before transferring to Egyptian champions FC Masar. Other teammates flew in from Germany, Sweden, Canada, the United States, and Chile.
“We never camp together. Every player on the national team lives in a different country; very few of us still reside in Palestine,” explained Qassis.
“But as a national team, I feel like our fighting spirit is what sets us apart. We play for Palestine, we play for everyone back home. And that’s the only thing that helped us rise above.
“We went there feeling confident that we could do something in that championship. And with God’s help, we managed to win first place. We were sure we had the capabilities to do it. In the end, if we couldn’t, it’s God’s will. But thankfully, our mentality and spirit were very strong.”
Qassis and her teammates felt like they were playing for something bigger than just silverware.
“In the past, among all national teams, our name wasn’t known at all. You’d ask anyone and they’d tell you, ‘What is Palestine? They don’t play football’. This year, after we won the West Asian championship, we proved to the whole world that Palestine is still standing, the country is still here,” she added.
“Some people may not recognise Palestine as a state. But we won; our name is there in West Asia, and we showed that we are the best team in West Asia. That is something huge for us.”
Qassis was born and raised in Bethlehem in the West Bank and lived her whole life in Palestine until she moved to Cairo last September when Zamalek came knocking.
She fell in love with football at the age of five, when she would abandon her mother on shopping trips to join the boys she spotted kicking a ball in the street.
When her mother realised there was no point in trying to divert her daughter’s attention from the game, she took her to a club that was run by a friend of hers to see if Qassis could train there.
Initially, they said Qassis was too young but gave her a shot anyway. By age six, she was training at Diyar Bethlehem Club.
Qassis joined the national team setup age 11, and has been part of all the different age-group squads since.
“I travelled with the team to Norway when I was young, and that’s when I started gaining confidence and believing in myself. I started thinking about dedicating myself to football. Those trips with the youth team proved to me how much I wanted this,” she recalls.
There never was a robust girls’ football scene in Palestine, and she says there were basically three teams with women’s sides and just one suitable pitch to train or play on.
“But there are many talented young girls in Palestine who want to pursue football. Maybe not big numbers compared to other countries, but we certainly have talent,” she says.
Qassis had just graduated from high school when she received the offer to join Zamalek in Egypt’s top flight. She was a week away from going to university in Bethlehem, but she suddenly felt that God had other plans for her.
“I spoke to my parents. Ultimately, I told my mum that I feel like God has written this for me, to continue my football career for a long time,” she explained.
“In Palestine, we don’t have a future in women’s football, especially for someone who wants to reach something big. So I told my mum I want to keep pursuing this and she said I should go for it.
“We don’t have a strong league. We have one pitch in all of Palestine that we can play on. So we didn’t have any factors that could help me achieve my dreams in football. I had no choice but to leave.”
Qassis and her father made the trip to Cairo together, but they first had to spend two nights in Jordan because the border crossings were closed. He spent a month with her in Egypt to make sure she settled in before returning to Palestine.
“Life in Egypt is great. It’s a safe country. This is the first time I feel safe at home, that’s not something we have in Palestine,” she tells The National over Zoom, speaking from a friend’s house in Cairo.
“I acclimatised to life here quite easily. It’s a good life.”
In February, an even bigger opportunity came her way when another Cairo club, FC Masar, expressed interest in her. FC Masar are the best women’s football team in Egypt and have just successfully defended their league title. They also secured the bronze medal at the CAF Women’s Champions League last year and have a philosophy of providing pathways for their players towards greater opportunities.
Qassis, who is mostly a forward but prefers playing on the right wing, lives at the club’s home facilities at the Right to Dream Academy campus in Badya in west Cairo and feels like she has fit right in.
“All of the foreign players live together here at the facility in Badya, you never feel lonely or bored. We feel like we’re a family and I feel like Badya is my home,” she said.
“We live together, we have all our meals together, so I feel like this is my second family. The club also really takes care of us, they care about well-being, our education, especially the younger players. I don’t see this level of attention given at any other club.”
Qassis is planning on pursuing a university degree in Egypt and is keen on studying physical education.
The Egyptian league has given clubs a waiver that allows them to consider Palestinians as local players and they do not count towards their foreign player quotas.
That has opened the door for other Palestinian players to join the league, with Al Ahly and Zed FC recruiting a number of Qassis’ compatriots. They are all friends and have known each other since they were kids.
With the football season now over in Egypt, Qassis will link up with the Palestine national team later this month for two friendly games hosted by Lebanon as they prepare for the upcoming AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup Qualifiers, taking place in Tajikistan from August 6-10.
During her summer break, she plans to go back to visit her family in Bethlehem, although it’s not always an easy trip to make.
“On paper, the trip is a one-hour flight from Cairo to Jordan, and then I should take a short bus ride to Bethlehem. But us Palestinians have to drive through four or five checkpoints, in various locations, in order to reach my home in Palestine,” she says.
“If my flight from Cairo is at, let’s say, 6am, I would reach Jordan at 7am, I would reach my home in Palestine at like 8 or 9pm. Sometimes the border can be overcrowded, or sometimes they just give us trouble trying to pass through. So it takes a very long time."
Qassis has two younger sisters, who also play football, and when she discusses the hopes and dreams she has for herself in the sport, they aren’t necessarily related to achievements on the pitch.
“I’m just dreaming of being able to get my family out of Palestine so they can come live with me. I’m doing everything I can to make that happen,” she says.
“I just want to say that, God willing, the situation improves in Palestine and we can come and go as we please, so that girls who are dreaming of the same thing I am dreaming of can reach it.”
