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Bitar answers international call for Lebanon for the fourth time in 2024
November 7, 2024

Even though the 2024 Canadian Premier League (CPL) season has come to a close for Vancouver FC, forward Gabriel Bitar’s soccer season is still rolling along. The 26-year-old is answering the call for the Lebanese National Team for a pair of international friendlies in the November FIFA window.

Bitar will be spending over two weeks with the Lebanese National team first joining the squad in Qatar, the country where the native of Ottawa, Ont., made his first international appearance in 2024 at the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Asian Cup, for a training camp. Then, Bitar and The Cedars will be facing Thailand and Myanmar in friendly matches on Thursday, Nov. 14 and Tuesday, Nov. 19, respectively.

Today’s call up marks the fourth time in 2024 that Bitar has answered the call for the Lebanese National Team, making him a consistent feature for The Cedars this year. Bitar most recently participated in the 43rd edition of the Pestabola Merdeka in September with the nation of his parents’ birth. The native of Ottawa, Ont., made an appearance in both of Lebanon’s games and came home with some hardware, taking second place to hosts Malaysia.

Prior to that, Bitar joined the Lebanese National Team for the country’s FIFA World Cup qualifiers in March where they faced Australia in the second round of group stage matches. However, the most notable call up for Bitar came in January where, as previously mentioned, he participated in the AFC Asian Cup. There, Bitar got to experience what it truly felt to be on a world stage, running onto the field in front of over 82,000 fans as a second half substitute. He would go on to make another appearance in the nation’s final group match where they unfortunately did not advance through.

So far this year Bitar has made six appearances for Lebanon across his three previous call ups. With November being the last FIFA sanctioned international window, the 26-year-old midfielder could add two more caps before 2024 is up.

For the Eagles this year, Bitar made 21 starts in 27 appearances scoring four goals and registering two assists. Bitar marked a major milestone with VFC on Saturday, Sept. 28 making his 50th appearance for the Eagles across all competitions, becoming only the second player at the time to join the “Golden Club.” Goalkeeper Callum Irving was the first VFC player to hit the milestone and defender Rocco Romeo later joined the club in Vancouver’s final match of 2024. 

Bitar has been a household name for Vancouver and will, so far, be remembered in the record books as the all-time leading VFC assists holder with six to date. He has also scored the second most goals in franchise history with 10, trailing only striker Alejandro ‘Wero’ Díazwho has registered 12 goals in his time as an Eagle. 

Bitar is the second Eagle to earn a call up this off-season. VFC teenager Grady McDonnell is currently representing the Republic of Ireland at the UEFA European U-17 Championship Round 1 qualifying. McDonnell and the Boys in Green have three matches in Round 1 qualifying, having to still face Northern Ireland and Scotland, while they’ve already squared off against Lithuania where McDonnell made the starting XI in the 2-2 draw.