Balal Arezou (also Belal or Bilal; born 28 December 1988) is an Afghan footballer who plays as a forward and currently plays for Norwegian club Grane Arendal.[1] He ranks second in the all-time top scorer table of the Afghanistan national football team with nine goals.[2]
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 28 December 1988 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Kabul, Afghanistan | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Forward | ||||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||||
Current team | Grane Arendal | ||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||
| Senja | |||||||||||||||||
| –2006 | Grane | ||||||||||||||||
| 2007 | FK Arendal | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 2007 | FK Arendal | 1 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2007–2008 | Fredrikstad | 0 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2009–2015 | Asker | 118 | (24) | ||||||||||||||
| 2013–2014 | → Churchill Brothers (loan) | 8 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2015–2016 | Moss | 20 | (9) | ||||||||||||||
| 2016–2018 | Asker | 2 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2018 | Arendal | 6 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 2019–2024 | IF Trauma | 44 | (28) | ||||||||||||||
| 2024- | Grane Arendal | 11 | (11) | ||||||||||||||
| International career‡ | |||||||||||||||||
| 2010 | Afghanistan U-23 | 5 | (6) | ||||||||||||||
| 2011– | Afghanistan | 28 | (9) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
|
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 28 January 2019 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 16 November 2023 | |||||||||||||||||
Club career
editAsker
editArezou grew up in Afghanistan and moved to Norway as a refugee. In Norway, he played football for Senja, IK Grane|Grane, Arendal and Fredrikstad's youth team before he joined Asker in 2009.[3]
Churchill Brothers
editIn February 2013 he joined Churchill Brothers S.C. on a four-month loan from Asker. His move completed with the return of Indian striker Sunil Chhetri from Sporting Clube de Portugal.[4]
Moss FK
editOn 7 March 2015 he joined Moss FK on a 2-year contract. He will wear shirt number 90.
IF Trauma
editArezou signed with IF Trauma on 26 January 2019, and was reunited with his former coach, Gaute Haugenes.[5]
International career
editArezou was included in Afghanistan's squad for the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup in the Maldives. In the group stages of the tournament Afghanistan claimed their first ever win at the AFC Challenge Cup with a 3–1 victory over Turkmenistan.[6] After Afghanistan's 0–0 draw with Laos that confirmed their progression out of the group stage, an accident occurred while the Afghan players were being driven back to their hotel. Arezou sustained minor injuries in the accident along with his teammates Faisal Sakhizada, Ahmad Hatifi, Zohib Islam Amiri, and Mustafa Azadzoy. All five players were set to miss the semi-finals against Palestine. Former coach Mohammad Yousef Kargar and current coach Erich Rutemöller also suffered minor injuries.[7][8][9][10]
International goals
edit- Scores and results list Afghanistan's goal tally first.
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 3 July 2011 | Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium, Al-Ram, Palestine |  Palestine |
1–1 |
1–1 |
2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier |
| 2. | 3 December 2011 | Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi, India |  India |
1–0 |
1–1 |
2011 SAFF Championship |
| 3. | 7 December 2011 | Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi, India |  Bhutan |
3–0 |
8–1 | |
| 4. | 4–0
| |||||
| 5. | 5–1
| |||||
| 6. | 8–1
| |||||
| 7. | 9 December 2011 | Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi, India |  Nepal |
1–0 |
1–0
| |
| 8. | 2 March 2013 | New Laos National Stadium, Vientiane, Laos |  Sri Lanka |
1–0 |
1–0 |
2014 AFC Challenge Cup qualifier |
| 9. | 4 March 2013 | New Laos National Stadium, Vientiane, Laos |  Mongolia |
1–0 |
1–0
|
Personal life
editBalal's younger brother Amid Arezou made his debut for the Afghanistan national team in 2024.[11]
Club career stats
edit- As of 16 August 2014
| Season | Club | League | League | Cup | Continental | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | |||
| 2009 | Asker | 2. divisjon | 25 | 4 | 0 | 0 | — | 25 | 4 | |
| 2010 | 26 | 7 | 2 | 2 | — | 28 | 9 | |||
| 2011 | Adeccoligaen | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 19 | 0 | ||
| 2012 | 2. divisjon | 24 | 10 | 2 | 0 | — | 26 | 10 | ||
| 2012–13 | Churchill Brothers (loan) | I-League | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 12 | 0 |
| 2013 | Asker | 2. divisjon | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | — | 7 | 1 | |
| 2014–15 | 17 | 2 | 1 | 0 | — | 18 | 2 | |||
| Asker total | 118 | 24 | 5 | 2 | — | 123 | 26 | |||
| Career total | 126 | 24 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 135 | 26 | ||
Honors
editChurchill Brothers
Afghanistan
Individual
References
edit- ^ "DEBUTANTER BLE HELTER" (in Norwegian). arendalfotball. 18 August 2018. Archived from the original on 26 August 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
- ^ Strack-Zimmermann, Benjamin. "NFT player – National team & Club appearances: Arezou, Belal". national-football-teams.com. National Football Teams. Archived from the original on 29 October 2021. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
- ^ Langerød, Dag (4 February 2010). "Sjekk denne 2. divisjonshelten" (in Norwegian). Nettavisen. Archived from the original on 10 April 2010. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
- ^ Belal Arezou joined Churchill Brothers of Indian League Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. ahmadfaisalsidiqi.blogspot.in, 14 February 2013
- ^ Toppscorer på landslaget til Trauma Archived 29 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine, fvn.no, 26 January 2019
- ^ "AFC Challenge Cup: Afghanistan 3–1 Turkmenistan". AFC. 23 May 2014. Archived from the original on 24 May 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
- ^ "Afghan contingent suffers minor injuries in team bus accident". AFC. 25 May 2014. Archived from the original on 26 May 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
- ^ Shimaaz Ali (25 May 2014). "Five Afghan players to miss semi". Maldives Soccer. Archived from the original on 26 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
- ^ Mohamed Sajid (25 May 2014). "Afghanistan is all over worried". Maldives Soccer. Archived from the original on 27 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
- ^ Shimaaz Ali (24 May 2014). "Afghan five players injured due to the accident". Maldives Soccer. Archived from the original on 26 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
- ^ "Afghanistan v Qatar game report". ESPN. 6 June 2024.
External links
edit- Balal Arezou at Soccerway
- Balal Arezou at WorldFootball.net
- Balal Arezou on Facebook