Ibrahim Chami, U1 Arts, a first-year defender for Redbirds Soccer, has made a strong mark on the field in his first season on the team. Starting off his rookie season strong, Chami has been named to the U SPORTS All-Rookie Team, has merited first-team all-star status in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) conference, and has been a starting player in all of the team’s regular-season games.
Chami kicked his first soccer ball at three years old, practicing on his own and often playing with his dad. At the age of eight, he joined his first team and started playing competitively, and from there, his soccer career flourished. Chami has represented Team Lebanon on various occasions including at the Arab Cup, the Asian Cup, and the 2024 Olympic qualifiers. Now, he plays both for the Redbirds and also semi-professionally for the Association de Soccer de Blainville (AS Blainville) soccer club, where he competes in Ligue 1 Québec.
His transition from playing high-level soccer throughout high school to being a student-athlete at McGill while balancing rigorous academics has been a tough adjustment, but one that has paid off on the field.
“I decided to [come to] McGill University because I know it’s a prestigious school,” Chami told The Tribune on Nov. 7. “Regarding the sport aspect, I wanted to challenge myself a bit, because in the past years, McGill didn’t have […] good results. So I wanted to change the tendency and try to push the team the highest that I can. And I think that, as a first-year student, things went very well, because we were not expected to be where we are today, and today we’re at Nationals.”
The Redbirds are having an extremely strong season, reaching nationals for the first time since 2011. They placed third out of seven teams in the RSEQ conference, with a record 5–4–3, achieving their highest regular-season record since 2018.
Despite coming off a loss (1-2) to the Université de Montréal Carabins in the conference championships, Chami says the Redbirds are looking to build from the positive moments from the game and the season to fuel them for the tough competition at Nationals.
“We were all disappointed with the result of our final against [the Carabins], but we were pissed that we lost the game on specific details, details that we could have avoided,” he said. “But it was just small details that made the difference. And this is what happens in important games, things can change in seconds, just because of details. So I think we’re ready to bounce back today and in the upcoming games for nationals.”
Reaching the semi-finals, the Redbirds fought hard but ultimately fell short to the York Lions (3-1) in a bronze medal match on Nov. 10.
As the university soccer season comes to an end, Chami is looking to build on the great performance the Redbirds had this year. His first year on the team has shown how much of an impact he’s made and he aims to continue to build off of these positive wins from the season, pushing the team to be the best it can be in his next years at McGill.
As Chami reflected on his own soccer journey, playing competitively from a young age, he stressed the importance of resilience and a strong mentality.
“If you truly have something in mind and you want to achieve it, you just go for it,” he said. “You don’t find excuses […] you just put in the work. Even if you don’t get results immediately. But I see it as a process, and this is how it should be. Even if the results are not good for the moment, if you keep working, you keep grinding, at one point, things are going to turn for you.”
