Personal Info
- Country of residence: Chile
Information
The Palestinian player Roberto Catlon was born on July 25, 1981 in the upscale Arab suburb of the Chilean capital, Santiago, to a Palestinian father and an Italian mother. He was raised and raised in this suburb, which was teeming with Arab residents from the Levant countries, Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. From a young age, he was talented. He plays and has fun with his peers in the streets and parks of Santiago, which draws attention to him and puts him under the eyes of observers. It was natural for him to join the Deportivo Palestino Club, which represents the Palestinian community in Chile, and through this club his true path toward professionalism and brilliance began. From a young age, he was the star of the first team, which he relied on greatly. He became the idol of the Palestinian fans in Chile, and even went so far as to be directed to him. He was invited more than once to participate with the Chilean Olympic team in several tournaments, but his love for Palestine was with him because he was impatiently awaiting the decision to call him up to the team of the town of Palestine, and the dream of professionalism in Europe continued to tickle the feelings of our star, especially in the Italian “Calcio” league, which he had always dreamed of. Playing in his ranks after he saw the stars shining in his sky, whether the international star Maradona or the Italian magician Roberto Baggio, or the two well-known Chilean stars Ivan Zamorano and Marcelo Salas, who were an example for every Chilean player and certainly Catalon viewed them as an ideal that must be strived with all seriousness and sincerity in order to reach. him, and follow the same approach.
Catalon's rosy dreams of playing in the Italian League came close to being realized when he moved to play in Europe, but not in a well-known club or an ancient league, so his destination was the Greek League, and the Skoda Xanthi club was the gateway to Calcio, as Catalone had planned, but the winds came with what he did not desire. And his experience in Greece did not record any significant success. On the contrary, this year was one of the worst years of his life at the club level, as he repeatedly stated. Our star was forced to give up part of his big dream, which was to play for an ancient European club, but Catalon considered that the circumstances did not help him. He was able to achieve what he aspired to, and the biggest obstacle in his way was the coach of the Greek team, Nikos Karargourou, who unjustifiably ignored him and did not include him with the team except rarely, under the pretext that he was a weakly built player who did not possess the required physical strength, which was characteristic of the Greek league, which relied on strong tackling. In contrast to the Chilean league, which relies on high technical skill and smooth performance, far from force and roughness, which prompted Catalon to respond to that neglect by saying: “I am a football player, not a sumo player!!After this disdain by the Greek club coach towards Catalon’s talent, the player, Roberto Catalon, decided to return to the Palestinian Community Club in Chile. He played with them for a season, then he moved a year ago to the Chilean club Union Espanola, and he is still playing with this club
. In terms of Roberto Catalon’s participation with the Palestine national team, he joined the national team. Through the former coach of the Palestine national team, Nicholas Shahwan, he started out in the Arab Cup in 2002. He excelled in the tournament and became the talk of the Palestinian and Arab sports street. The fans of the Palestinian national team called him the magician because of his skill in dribbling and keeping the ball and his magic passes, and he began participating in the tournament. In all of the Palestinian national team’s achievements, he scored many goals with the national team, the most famous of which was the equalizer against the Iraqi national team in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, which he scored from a free kick that he executed with magic and beauty.
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Achievements and Awards
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