Lia Barkai

Lia Barkai
	Photo: Haim Zach / GPO
Personal information
Full name	Lia Gal Barkai
Date of birth	5 April 1999 (age 25)
Place of birth	Israel
Position(s)	Defender
Team information
Current team	ASA Tel Aviv
Senior career*
Years	Team
	ASA Tel Aviv
International career‡
2014–2015	Israel U17
2016–2018	Israel U19
2017–2020	Israel
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 30 August 2019; ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 27 November 2021

Lia Gal Barkai (Hebrew: ליה גל ברקאי; born 5 April 1999) is an Israeli footballer who plays as a defender and has appeared 9 times (till now ^[when?]) for the Israel women's national team.

Career

Barkai started to play at the age of 8 for a boys' team in a township of Pardes Hanna, and after 3 years she moved to play for 2 famous local teams: Maccabi Kishronot Hadera and ASA Tel Aviv University. in 2015, at the age of 16, she accepted to the Wingate Institute in Israel. As a student, she played for the College Women Football Team, known in Israel as "The Academia" in the premier Israeli League. When she finished her studies at the "Academia", she started her mandatory service in the army. As she was recognized as an "excellence sport-person" (an official definition for several sport-persons that let them combine their service with the ongoing career) she continued to play for the ASA Tel Aviv University team. She became famous when the army refused to let her join the National Israeli Women team to the European Championship campaign in Spain, but the army regretted a day before the game, after the story got published in the Israeli media. She joined the team but was sitting on the bench during the match Vs. Spain. She continued and still is to play for 3 Israeli teams. Barkai has been capped for the Israel national team, appearing for the team during the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying cycle.^[1]