MENA Sports Wrap: Lebanese football star Celine Haidar wakes from coma caused by Israeli strike

Some good news in the sporting world - Celine Haidar, the Lebanese female footballer who was wounded by an Israeli strike in Beirut in November, has finally awoken from a coma.

The incident has brought further attention to the number of athletes wounded or killed by Israel's bombardment in Gaza and Lebanon.

Brazilian star Neymar, who has spent most of his time at Al-Hilal injured, has echoed Cristiano Ronaldo's comments on the Saudi Pro League, stating that it is better than France's League 1, and pointed out how the country has "pleasantly surprised him".

Meanwhile, the 2025 Dakar Rally is underway in the Gulf kingdom, with drivers expecting to cover around 8,000 kilometres in the country's rough terrain. 

Celine Haidar wakes up from coma after critical injury from Israeli strike

A Lebanese female footballer who was seriously injured by Israeli shrapnel following a missile attack on the Beirut suburb of Chiyah in November has woken from a medically-induced coma, Lebanese media reported this week.

Celine Haidar was about to make her dream of playing for the national women's team come true but debris from an Israeli strike left the 19-year-old in a coma.

A few hours after she woke up, her father Abbas Haidar said he was "incredibly proud" of her recovery, telling local media that she had regained consciousness. 

"She recognised us and her loved ones and is now aware of what happened to her," Haidar told Lebanon24 news site.

He said Celine was on a ventilator and was unable to speak but had communicated through writing, adding she was at a "good stage" in her recovery and passed the critical phase.

Celine was the latest athlete casualty of Israeli strikes, which had forced the Lebanese Football Association to postpone all domestic football competitions indefinitely.

Her family were among more than a million people who fled south Beirut and other areas targeted by Israeli attacks which killed thousands of Lebanese.

Celine headed back to her home in Chiyah to continue her studies and training and left on 16 November after receiving an evacuation warning about impending Israeli bombing.

She was seriously wounded in the head by an Israeli strike when she left her home, fracturing her skull and resulting in a brain haemorrhage.

Celine was described as a "pillar" of her club, Beirut Football Academy (BFA), which won the Lebanese Women's Football League last season without dropping a single point, and was due to don the captain's armband this season, her team manager Ziad Saade said.

The midfielder was also part of the national women's Under-18 team that won the 2022 West Asian Football Federation championship.

Neymar agrees with Ronaldo that Saudi Pro League is 'better' than France's Ligue 1

Brazilian star Neymar has said he agrees with Cristiano Ronaldo's controversial opinion that the Saudi Pro League is better than France's top-flight Ligue 1.

Ronaldo, who plays for Al-Nassr in the Saudi league, originally made the remarks at the Globe Soccer Awards ceremony in the UAE late last December, saying:

"Of course, the Saudi league is better than the French league. I’m not saying this just because I play there - I don’t care what people think - but they should go to Saudi Arabia and run in temperatures of 38 and 39 degrees several times. Players should move there."

In a subsequent interview with CNN, Neymar supported Ronaldo's comments, with the Al-Hilal striker saying: "I agree with him. The level of the Saudi league is rising, and from what I see, it is better than the French league."

"The players here have improved. Saudi Arabia has pleasantly surprised me - the people, the cities, and the culture. It is a country in continuous growth, and I believe the 2034 World Cup will be amazing," he added.

However, Neymar, who previously played in Ligue 1 for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) between 2017 and 2023, clarified: "But the French league is also strong. I played there and know it well. It is a very high-level competition."

The French league is currently considered the fifth-best league in in the world, while the Saudi Pro League was placed 33rd, according to Opta Power Ratings.

Neymar joined Al-Hilal in August 2023, signing from PSG in a deal worth 90 million euros

Since then, Neymar has appeared only seven times for the Riyadh club across all competitions, scoring just one goal and providing 3 assists in a total of 428 minutes played.

2025 Dakar Rally underway in Saudi Arabia

The annual Dakar Rally is currently taking place in Saudi Arabia for the sixth consecutive year, and is seeing some of the biggest names in motorsport take on some of the kingdom’s toughest routes.

The competition started last Friday in Bisha, in the country’s southwest, and will see drivers drivers compete through 12 stages across 15 days, and covering around 8,000 kilometres.

The race’s most challenging section took place between Sunday and Monday, where competitors drove more than 1,000 km in just two days.

This Friday is a rest day, before competitors take on challenging terrain in Al-Hail, Al-Duwadimi, Riyadh and Haradh, before eventually reaching Shubatayah, in the country’s east, close to the border with Qatar, when the race ends on Friday 17 October.

The rally will feature drivers from all around the world, including competitors from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain – among other Arab nations.

Among the MENA drivers to look out for 2022 champion Nasser Al-Attiyah from Qatar, who won the fifth stage of the competition on Thursday, after bouncing back from technical issues. Al-Attiyah drives for Dacia, and is now the first non-Toyota driver topped a stage in Dakar 2025.

The 2025 Dakar Rally also includes the 5-day Saudi Next Gen Programme, designed to find and develop the next generation of Saudi motorsport champions. This year features for the first time a female racer duo, consisting of Merryhan Albaz and her assistant Nancy Al-Majali.

The rally was traditionally held in West Africa and Europe until security issues due to the rise of Al-Qaeda in the Sahel region forced the 2008 edition to be cancelled.

Since then, it has been held outside West Africa, including South America and the Middle East.