Firas Mohamad Al Khatib (; born 9 June 1983) is a Syrian former footballer who mainly played as a forward. He is the Syria national team all-time top goalscorer, with 36 goals.
Club career
Early life
Al-Khatib began playing football at Al-Karamah SC, he was included in the club's categories U-14, with whom he played for two seasons. One of the most important achievements of Al Khatib with youth Al Karamah was the victory of the Republic Cup and the title of the league's top scorer twice 1994–95, 1995–96. He then went on to play for Al Karamah U-17 in 1997, where he was crowned with the league title in the same year.
He also won the top scorer title. All this helped the young boy reach the youth team. During two seasons with U-19 team, he managed to win the league title and the second scorer.
Al Karamah
Al Khatib started his professional career in the Syrian Premier League with Al-Karamah in the Season 1999–2000. On 6 October 2000, he scored his first goal in the Syrian Premier League against Al-Futowa which 1–1 finished.
During 2001, he spent two trials in Belgium; first with Gent and the second with Anderlecht.
Al Naser
In August 2002, he transferred to Kuwaiti Club Al-Naser, and played in Kuwaiti Premier League for the first time. He then moved to Al-Arabi, which also competed in the Kuwaiti Premier League.
Al Arabi
With Al-Arabi he won the Kuwait Emir Cup three times, the Kuwait Crown Prince Cup twice and the Kuwait Super Cup once. He also scored 134 goals for the club and became a legend in the club.
In June 2005, he was loaned out to Al-Ahli in Qatar for one match, and played alongside Pep Guardiola.
Qadsia
On 24 August 2009, Al Khatib signed a two-year contract with Al-Qadsia in the Kuwaiti Premier League and played alongside his old teammate Jehad Al-Hussain.
In July 2012, he participated in three games with Nottingham Forest, scoring once in a trial of month. He impressed manager Sean O'Driscoll enough that the club were looking to sign him on a permanent basis but he was denied a work permit and the club was unable to sign him.
Zakho
On 10 September 2012, he tweeted that he signed with Iraqi Premier League club Zakho FC officially.
Shanghai Shenhua
He left Iraq to join Sergio Batista's Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua at February 2013. He scored his first goal in his Chinese Super League debut.
Return to Al Arabi
He became a free agent at the end of the 2013–14 football season and returned to Kuwait. He declined an offer from Kuwait SC and joined Al-Arabi SC on a 2-year deal.
During the first derby against Al-Salmiya SC, Al-Khatib scored his 100th league goal, but Al-Arabi SC lost the match 3–2.
Al-Khatib ended the season with 20 goals and shared the VIVA Premier League 2014–15 top league scorer with Patrick Fabiano. His total goal tally in all competitions was 24 goals. In 2015–16, he was selected in the VIVS Premier League 1st Team alongside teammate Ali Maqseed. Al-Khatib also won the VPL Golden Boot and top scorer of Al-Arabi with 27 goals; his highest tally in any season with any team.
Al Salmiya
In September 2017, he joined to Al-Salmiya, and scored 11 goals in his Kuwaiti Premier League. He became the best goalscorer in Kuwait Premier League history after he scored 147 goals, exceeding many Kuwaiti legends.
Retirement
On 29 September 2019, Al-Khatib announced his retirement from football after spending the whole summer without a club. He finished his career scoring 349 goals to achieve the 19th place in the list of world's best goal scorer of 21st century, as well as being the all-time top scorer of all Kuwaiti domestic competitions with 210 goals.
International career
Between 2001 and 2002, Al-Khatib played for the Syrian U-17 team. He played for Syria in the AFC U-17 Championship 2002 in the United Arab Emirates and was part of the Syrian U-23 team that participated in the AFC Olympic qualification campaign for the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Al-Khatib was a regular for the Syria national football team from 2001 to 2012. His international debut was at the FIFA World Cup qualification 2002, when he came on as a substitute for Khaled Al Zaher in the match against Philippine on 4 May 2001 in the Al-Hamadaniah Stadium in Aleppo. On 11 May 2001 he scored one goal in the FIFA World Cup qualification 2002 match against Laos the match was finished 9–0 for Syria.