Early years and Real Madrid Born in
Amman to a
Palestinian father and a
Lebanese mother, Bawab's family moved to
Catalonia, Spain when he was a child. He started playing for the youth teams of local
UE Cornellà, leaving at the age of 18 to
Real Madrid where he completed his development, and scoring 30 goals in his sole season with the
Juvenil side. In 2004, Bawab signed a professional contract with Real Madrid, and the club also agreed to pay a college scholarship for him, as he went on to make his senior debut with the
third team in the
Tercera División. At that time, talks had started where people compared his style of play to
Zinedine Zidane (even though they did not play in the same position). In the following three seasons, he competed in the country's third tier, being relegated with all the clubs –
CE L'Hospitalet,
CD Alfaro (which he joined in January 2009) and
Moratalla CF. Midway through
the season, as his team would eventually suffer relegation, he joined fellow Romanian
Liga I side
CS Gaz Metan Mediaş. On 4 August 2011, Bawab scored two goals against
1. FSV Mainz 05 in the
last qualifying round of the
UEFA Europa League, one in each leg as Gaz Metan eventually won on
penalties. On 26 September, he added two more in a 2–1 league home win over
FCM Târgu Mureș. In September 2014,
free agent Bawab moved to
CS Universitatea Craiova also in Romania's top flight. He remained in the country the following years safe for a very brief spell in the
Qatar Stars League with
Umm Salal SC, representing
FC Steaua București,
FC Dinamo București,
CS Concordia Chiajna and
FC Dunărea Călărași. Bawab retired in 2023 aged 38, his last club being Spanish amateurs
AD Villaviciosa de Odón. Still as an active player, he worked as a taxi driver. ==International career==