Moanes Dabour


Moanes Dabbur is an Israeli professional footballer who plays as a striker for Bundesliga club 1899 Hoffenheim and the Israel national team.

Early life

Dabbur was born in Nazareth, Israel, to a Muslim-Arab family of Palestinian descent. His brother Anas Dabbur is also a footballer, who currently plays as a midfielder for Hapoel Rishon LeZion. Dabbur's father Kasam died in a car accident in 2009.

Club career

Maccabi Tel Aviv

Dabbur started his career in the Maccabi Nazareth and Maccabi Tel Aviv youth academies. He made his senior debut with Maccabi Tel Aviv on 2011. In 2011–12, he participated in 26 league matches for Maccabi, scoring eight goals.
In the 2012–13 season, he was part of the Maccabi team that won the Israeli league championship after a ten-year drought, providing the team with 10 goals in 26 matches. Dabbur started the season providing two important goals on 27 August 2011 against Maccabi Haifa, goals that were described as "extremely crucial" for the rest of the season in the tight race for achieving the title.
Dabbur ended the season after being injured for a one-month period during the warm up to the derby match against Hapoel Tel Aviv on 6 April 2013.

Grasshopper

On 4 February 2014, Dabbur confirmed his transfer to the Swiss Super League after Grasshopper Club Zürich paid a transfer fee of $425,000 to Maccabi Tel Aviv. On 16 February 2014, he had his first appearance at Zurich, when he came on from the bench in the second half scoring two goal and assisting once in a 5–1 win against St. Gallen. Dabbur finished his debut season at Grasshopper with nine goals and four assists in 15 league matches.
The 2014–15 season was comparatively less successful with Dabbur scoring 13 times in the league and 5 in the cup. He also provided 8 assists in the league, reaffirming his position as one of Grasshopper's best and most valuable players.
During the summer of 2015, several clubs were rumoured to be interested in Dabbur, including Werder Bremen and Palermo. However, the only two clubs to bid for him were the aforementioned Palermo and his old club, Maccabi Tel-Aviv. Both bids were rejected and Dabbur signed a new, greatly improved contract with Grasshoppers. Dabbur enjoyed a good start to the 2015–16 season, scoring 6 and assisting 8 goals in his club's first eight games including a goal and a hat-trick of assists in Grasshopper's opening game against Thun.

Red Bull Salzburg

During the 2017–18 season, Salzburg had their best ever European campaign. They finished top of their Europa League group, for a record fourth time, before beating Real Sociedad and Borussia Dortmund thus making their first ever appearance in the UEFA Europa League semi-final. On 3 May 2018, he played in the Europa League semi-finals as Olympique de Marseille played out a 1–2 away loss but a 3–2 aggregate win to secure a place in the 2018 UEFA Europa League Final.

Sevilla

On 17 January 2019, Dabbur agreed terms to join Spanish club Sevilla FC. He agreed to a four-year contract but stayed with Salzburg until the end of the campaign. Dabbur made his La Liga debut against Osasuna in matchweek 16, coming on as a substitute for Óliver Torres in the 78th minute.

Hoffenheim

On 7 January 2020, it was disclosed that Dabbur had signed a contract until 2024 with TSG 1899 Hoffenheim for a reported fee of 12 million euros.

International career

In 2013, Dabbur was part of the Israel U-21 national team that played in the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship that was hosted in Israel. Dabbur started in two out of three matches during the group stage of the tournament, against the U21 national teams of England and Italy.
In May 2014, Dabbur was named by coach Eli Guttman in the senior Israeli national football team's 25-man squad to play two friendlies against Mexico and Honduras. He made his senior debut against Honduras in a 4–2 victory on 1 June 2014. He scored his first goal for the national team against Andorra in a 4–0 victory on 3 September 2015, in UEFA Euro 2016 qualification.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

NoDateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.3 September 2015Sammy Ofer Stadium, Haifa, Israel4–04–0UEFA Euro 2016 qualification
2.15 November 2018Netanya Stadium, Netanya, Israel3–07–0Friendly
3.15 November 2018Netanya Stadium, Netanya, Israel4–07–0Friendly
4.24 March 2019Sammy Ofer Stadium, Haifa, Israel4–14–2UEFA Euro 2020 qualification
5.15 October 2019Turner Stadium, Beersheba, Israel1–03–1UEFA Euro 2020 qualification
6.15 October 2019Turner Stadium, Beersheba, Israel3–13–1UEFA Euro 2020 qualification
7.16 November 2019Teddy Stadium, Jerusalem, Israel1–21–2UEFA Euro 2020 qualification

Honours

;Maccabi Tel Aviv
;Red Bull Salzburg
;Individual