Bader Al-Mutawa.. The career of the goalkeeper, the scorer, the dean of the world’s players

One of the legends of the Arabian Gulf, the Middle East and Asia, the star Bashar Abdullah described him as the only good thing that Kuwaiti football and the national team have achieved in recent years. And he, in turn, did not disappoint him. He worked hard to win the title of Dean of World Players after he reached his 196th international participation after his participation in the Jordan match at the end of the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers.

He is the star Bader Al-Mutawa, who started his football career as a goalkeeper in the Kuwaiti youth ranks of Al-Qadisiyah in 1994, then turned into the center of the striker to become the most participating player in international matches, surpassing Malaysian Chen An, by one match.

Badr Al-Mutawa scored 55 goals during his international participation, and participated in 55 teams, and most of his participation was a milestone.

The career of Badr Ahmad Al-Mutawa, who was born in Kuwait City on January 10, 1985, at the beginning of the third millennium, began with a golden generation for Qadisiyah, and the Kuwait national team, as he was crowned the Gulf Cup 20. He is now 38 years old, and is about to announce his international retirement, after Al-Azraq’s participation in the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers ended.

Brazilian coach Paulo Cesar Carpigiani included him in the first team in 2003, and he was only 18 years old, and he had participated with the Olympic Blue in the qualifiers for the Athens Olympics and the Beijing Olympics, and his star rose in Gulf 16 in Kuwait, and he participated in several copies of the tournament since 2003 until Gulf 24 in 2019.

Al-Mutawa scored his appearance in the Gulf Cup (the most participation in it), in 2004 (Gulf 17), in Qatar, in which he confirmed once again that he is a special sniper striker when he scored two goals against the Saudi national team and another against Yemen.

He participated for the third time, in the 2007 Gulf Cup (Gulf 18), which was held in the Emirates, and was able to score again against Yemen and another goal against the Emirati Al-Abyad. And he caught the eye in the opening match, and Gulf 20 is considered the best in Badr Al-Mutawa’s career, after he managed to lead his country to win the title by scoring two goals against Yemen and a goal against the Lions of Rafidain, which led Al-Azraq to the final match.

In 2013, Badr Al-Mutawa appeared for the sixth time in the Gulf Cup and succeeded again in scoring a goal against the Yemeni team in the group stage, but the Kuwaiti team left the tournament in the semi-finals when it lost to the Emirates.

In Gulf 22, he managed to reach the net again by scoring a goal against the UAE team in the group league, raising his score to 12 goals in the history of his participation.

It is noteworthy that the start of Al-Mutawa with Al-Azraq was from Singapore. On September 4, 2003, Paulo Cesar Carpigiani chose him to participate in the starting line-up for the national team against Singapore at the National Stadium in Singapore in the 2004 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, which was a kind of risk given that it was the first match for the Brazilian to lead the Kuwaiti national team, but Al-Mutawa was at Karpigiani’s good faith after he led Kuwait to a 3-1 victory and scored a goal in his first international appearance in the blue shirt.

After Al-Mutawa led the Kuwaiti team to qualify for the 2004 Asian Cup in China, he participated in that edition of the tournament along with the 2011 and 2015 editions, although the Kuwaiti team failed to qualify from the group stage in the three editions.

Six months after his first international participation, Al-Mutawa played his first match in the World Cup qualifiers, which was in the qualifiers for Germany 2006 against Malaysia.

Al-Mutawa’s participation followed in the qualifiers for the global wedding, where he played several matches in the qualifiers for South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018, before he recently participated in the qualifiers for Qatar 2022, from which Al-Azraq exited early.

When the qualifiers for Qatar 2022 resumed, Al-Mutawa was three games away from Ahmed Hassan, who ascended the throne in 2012, and participated as a substitute in the matches of Australia and Jordan before starting key in the last confrontation against China Taipei, equaling the number achieved by the former Egyptian international defender before nine years.

Despite this great achievement, the Kuwaiti team’s exit from the qualifiers for the international wedding had an impact on Al-Mutawa, who broke down in tears immediately after the whistle blew at the end of the Kuwait match with China Taipei, thus losing his dream of ending his career on the international stage.

But there was some consolation for Al-Mutawa, after the head of the Kuwaiti Federation, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Yousef, honored him before traveling to Qatar to play the Bahrain match. Al-Mutawa continued writing history and was at the top of the most participating players with their country’s teams in the world.

Achievements

Bader Al-Mutawa started with the first team in Al-Qadisiyah Club in 2002, and played in the 2003/2004 Emir Cup final against Al-Salmiya Club, and won the cup with his team. And he won the award of top scorer in the tournament, and Badr won the Kuwaiti League top scorer award in the 2008/2009 season with ten goals. He also played for the Saudi Al-Nasr and Qatar club. He was just around the corner from moving to the Saudi Hilal on more than one occasion, but every time the matter was not completed.

Al-Mutawa participated with the Kuwaiti national team in the 2004 Asian Cup, but the team was eliminated from the first round, and also participated in the 2007 Asian Cup, and the team was eliminated from the qualifiers.

On May 11, 2007, Bader Al-Mutawa moved to Qatar Club on loan, where he played in the Emir of the State of Qatar Cup. However, Qatar Club lost to Al-Sadd, but Al-Mutawa left a wonderful impression with his professional playing, according to the team coach’s testimony.

Badr Al-Mutawa was nominated for the Asian Player of the Year award twice in a row, the first time he ranked second after the Qatari Khalfan Ibrahim, and in the second he was excluded because the last list included only seven players.