Hazem El Masri

El Masri was born in Tripoli, Lebanon on 1 April 1976 to ethnic Lebanese parents, Khaled and Amal. He emigrated to Australia with his family from there in 1988 when he was 11 years old. He began playing soccer at an early age but during his senior years in high school switched to rugby league, joining a local club, the Enfield Federals. While playing for Belmore Boys High School in 1994, El Masri was spotted by Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs development officers and was invited to trials for their Jersey Flegg side. The following year he was elevated to the President's Cup squad. ==Playing career==

1990s El Masri debuted in the Canterbury Bulldogs first grade team during the 1996 ARL season. Initially, El Masri was not the first choice goal-kicker at the Bulldogs over the more renowned kicker Daryl Halligan. It was not until Halligan was injured in 1997 that El Masri first kicked for the club. In that year's Super League season, El Masri scored a memorable hat-trick against English club Halifax. He then played for Canterbury on the wing El Masri broke the 1,900-point record after scoring 14 points in Round 8 of the 2007 NRL season against the Newcastle Knights, defeating them 30–16 and becoming the sixth player to ever surpass that point, along with Graham Eadie, Mick Cronin, Daryl Halligan, Jason Taylor and Andrew Johns. El Masri was called up to Game 3 of the 2007 State of Origin series to make his debut for New South Wales after Jamie Lyon was ruled out through injury. He kicked three conversions from the sideline, and scored the final try, giving him 10 points in total. Also in 2007, Bill Woods published an authorised biography, El Magic: the life of Hazem El Masri. El Masri broke the all-time highest NRL career point scoring record in front of a crowd of 19,791 against the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in round 1, 2009, with a penalty goal on a rainy Saturday night, giving him 2,208 points. On 15 May 2009, El Masri played his 300th game in the Bulldogs 20–18 defeat by the Dragons at Win Jubilee Stadium. He was the first Canterbury player to reach the milestone. He joined the exclusive '300' club behind, Darren Lockyer (355), Terry Lamb (349), Steve Menzies (349), Brad Fittler (336), Cliff Lyons (332), Andrew Ettingshausen (328), Geoff Gerard (320), Jason Croker (318), Paul Langmack (315), Ruben Wiki (312), Steve Price (306), Luke Ricketson (301) and Petero Civoniceva (300). In June 2009, El Masri announced that he would retire from the NRL at the end of the 2009 season. El Masri considered accepting this invitation but found himself unable to do so. El Masri set the NRL career point-scoring record of 2,418 points across 317 games, with 159 tries and 891 goals in 1087 attempts at 81.97%. ==Post-playing==

After his retirement, El Masri made an appearance, kicking a goal, in the opening ceremony of Melbourne's new AAMI Park before the 2010 ANZAC Test.{{cite news ==Personal life==

In 2000, El Masri married a Saudi Arabian-born Palestinian woman, Arwa Abousamra. They have three children. El Masri is a devout Muslim. He was one of the first Lebanese Australians to step forward in the name of friendship and understanding in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riots after the clash between predominantly white Cronulla locals and Middle-Eastern Western Sydney beachgoers resulted in violence and increased racial tensions between the groups. El Masri and his wife split in early 2014. He subsequently remarried. He was a White Ribbon Day ambassador. In October 2015, he was charged by New South Wales Police with assaulting his second wife, although the charge was dropped in 2016 based on a recording he had of the incident. In 2017, it was reported he and his first wife, Arwa had remarried. In 2025, El Masri was inducted into the Bulldogs Hall of Fame. ==References==