One afternoon in 2019, Yasser Hamed, whose last name is Palestinian but is originally from Leioa (Bizkaia), received a private message on Facebook. It was written in Arabic and with the help of Google Translator I found out that it was a phone call to go to Ramallah in the West Bank. “It was actually the selectors who first went looking for the guy who wrote to me. Then I managed to find out that he was calling me to play for the national team. Hamed was 22 years old and playing in the Portuguese third division.
Yasser’s ancestors left Spain in the 1970s to study medicine. After finishing his career, he settled in the Basque Country, where he met his wife and formed a Basque family with five children in Leioa. “I called my family in Gaza to say hello, but they didn’t come back.” Ros Hamed is part of Spain’s 1,300-strong Palestinian community, but Yasser’s role in the selection made him an idol and famous ambassador throughout the Arab world. “Last summer, I went on holiday with my girlfriend to Mallorca. We went to the beach and when we returned to the hotel, there was a big bouquet of flowers in the room. I was left in the kitchen, and it was Moroccan. When I got there, I wanted to thank you for what you did for Palestine. You are amazing,” Hamed said by phone from Doha, where ex-Madridista Josel’s team, Al Gharafa, plays.
Since his first visit to Ramallah in 2019, Hamed has not stopped being aware of the importance of football for Palestinians. This selection is currently taking place in Qatar, which is one of Palestine’s main diplomatic resources. On his debut, he scored a historic goal against Yemen, and in 2023, during the conflict with Israel, he reached the first round of the Asian Cup.
A few years ago, Yasser came up with an idea that would finally make his highest sporting aspirations come true. “He always dreamed of playing for San Mamés and taking part in the selection of Euskadi in the autonomous competition, because he contacted the last presidents of the Basque national team, Javier Landeta and Iker Goni, to put him in touch with Palestine. Between the tight calendar and the huge number of issues, I think it’s very difficult. It wasn’t until this summer that the phone call broke down and we finally succeeded in bringing Palestine to San Mamés,” he said. I will explain. Social movements against Israel’s genocide, especially during the Vuelta a España, exposed the contradictions of European professional sport towards Israel. When the Euskadi Palestine convened in Bilbao on November 15, the social engagement was unimaginable, with over 30,000 applications sold on the Basque Federation’s web in just a few hours.
Hamed has played in Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, India and Qatar. It is in the world of soccer that his career is given meaning thanks to the power of the ball to abandon the cause. Despite the suffering in Palestinian villages, Yasser remains optimistic. “We’re going to play in San Mamés, but we’re also going to play at home in the West Bank.” ¿ Are you in Gaza? “O’Hara, but that’s when it’s impossible,” he sums up.
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