page_title: Mehdi Khalil
section_title: 2017–2020: Ahed
hierarchical_section_title: Mehdi Khalil / Club career / 2017–2020: Ahed
caption_attribution_description: English: Mehdi Khalil with Ahed against Akhaa Ahli Aley during the 2019-20 Lebanese Premier League
context_page_description: Mehdi Salim Khalil is a Lebanese professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Iranian club Zob Ahan, on loan from Ahed, and the Lebanon national team. Khalil is known as "the Mountain" because of his height: indeed, he was the fifth tallest goalkeeper at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.
  Khalil started his senior career in Sierra Leone at Johansen, before moving to Sweden in 2011, first at Koping FF and then at Djurgården. Following his experience in Sweden, Khalil moved back to his native country, at Kallon, before joining Lebanese club Safa in 2013. After spending four years at the club, Khalil moved to Lebanese Premier League reigning champions Ahed in 2017. He won the 2019 AFC Cup with the side, the first in Lebanese history, as the competition's Most Valuable Player. In 2020, Khalil moved to Iranian side Zob Ahan on a six-month loan.
  Khalil represented Lebanon at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup as their main goalkeeper, playing in all three group stage games. With 40 international caps, Khalil is the joint most-capped goalkeeper, alongside Ziad Al Samad.
context_section_description: On July 2017, Khalil moved to Lebanese champions Ahed, for a fee of around $250,000. Khalil quickly asserted himself as the team's first-choice goalkeeper, playing 18 league games in the 2017–18 season. He helped his team win the domestic treble—the league title, cup, and Super Cup. Khalil was Ahed's goalkeeper at the 2018 AFC Cup, playing eight games and reaching the zonal semi-finals, where they lost to Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya 5–3 on aggregate. In his first season at the club, Khalil was included in the 2017–18 Lebanese Premier League Team of the Season as the league's best goalkeeper.
  His next season with the team was also successful, as he won his second domestic treble. He played 21 league games in the 2018–19 season. Khalil featured in the 2018–19 Lebanese Premier League Team of the Season. On 4 November 2019, after beating April 25 in the final, he won the 2019 AFC Cup as the competition's Most Valuable Player. Conceding just three goals in 11 matches, Khalil kept nine clean sheets (of which five were consecutive in the knock-out stages) as Ahed went unbeaten throughout the whole tournament. The 2019 AFC Cup win was the first for a Lebanese club.
caption: Khalil with Ahed in 2019
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