Roda Antar

Who is Roda Antar?

Roda Antar is a Sierra Leone-born Lebanese professional footballer who currently plays for Jiangsu Sainty in the Chinese Super League and the Lebanon national football team, captaining the squad since 2005.

Antar started his career with Tadamon Sour, progressing through their youth system to the first-team squad where he made his debut at the age of 17 in the Lebanese Premier League during the 1998–99 season. He finished his career with the club having scored 13 league goals. In July 2001, he was loaned to Germany's Hamburger SV for two seasons, where he scored two goals in 23 Bundesliga appearances, as well as one goal in six Regionalliga Nord appearances in his second season for Hamburger SV II, the club's reserve-team. In August 2003, Antar was brought to SC Freiburg by the club's first-team coach Volker Finke. After a serious injury, Antar eventually debuted in the 2003–04 season on 6 December in a 4–2 win against VfL Bochum, where Antar scored a hat-trick, and was subsequently referred to as a "Football God" by Freiburg supporters. He finished the season having scored seven goals in 17 league appearances.