Eyes on the Ball

Bassil Mikdadi holds a unique position: he is the only independent reporter covering the Palestinian national soccer team full-time. On his Substack Football Palestine, Mikdadi, who is thirty-nine, exhaustively tracks Palestine’s far-flung campaigns to qualify for major international tournaments, scouting their opposition and breaking down their on-field performances just as if he were, say, the beat reporter for the Carolina Hurricanes. While Israel’s war on Gaza has invariably made its way into his reporting over the past few years, Mikdadi’s mission is to put the sport first. Media coverage of Palestine is almost universally focused on suffering. Mikdadi offers something else altogether. In 2025, while playing entirely away from their home stadium, Palestine came closer than they ever have to qualifying for the World Cup. Even after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire was announced this month, Mikdadi’s focus remained on a spirited Palestine victory against Algeria.

Mikdadi, who is Palestinian, was born in San Francisco and has lived in ten countries, in part due to his father’s job as an engineer for major infrastructure projects in developing nations. He originally came to Football Palestine as a reader when it was still hosted on the rudimentary Blogspot platform. Mikdadi became such an avid commenter that the original proprietor invited him to join as a contributor; Mikdadi eventually took over the site and gradually made it the professional operation it is today. About a year ago, after signing up enough paying subscribers, Mikdadi was able to quit his tech job and focus on Football Palestine full-time.