Bibras Natcho

Bibras Natcho (Adyghe: Пыйпэрыс Натхъо, Hebrew: ביברס נאתכו, Serbian Cyrillic: Бибрас Натхо; born 18 February 1988) is an Israeli professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serbian SuperLiga club Partizan. He is a former captain of the Israel national team who is also the first of either Circassian or Muslim origin, until his international retirement on 25 March 2023. He also holds Serbian citizenship. Natcho was born in Kfar Kama, Israel, to a Circassian-Israeli Muslim family. His father Akram Natkho served in the Israel Border Police (Magav), and died of cardiac arrest in 2008. His cousin, Circassian-Israeli basketball player Nili Natkho, died in 2004 in a car accident in northern Israel. Their grandfather emigrated from Turkey to what was then British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel). His younger cousin Amir Natkho joined CSKA in 2015 as well. His uncle, Amir's father, Adam Natkho is also a former footballer from Russia. He is married to Circassian-Israeli fashion designer Talia Ashmoz-Natcho, and together they have three children. His eldest son was born in 2012 and is named after Natcho's late father. Throughout his career, Natcho has played for nearly every Israeli national team together with his colleague, Beram Kayal. He represented the national team at the Valeri Lobanovsky Memorial Tournament 2007 that was victorious for it. As a former captain of the Israel under-19 team, Natcho was called up for the senior team friendly match held 12 August 2009 against Northern Ireland, but wasn't capped. Natcho made his first appearance for the senior side in a friendly match against Romania on 3 March 2010, when he came on as a substitute. He scored his first international goal against Azerbaijan on 7 September 2012. On 25 March 2023, he retired from international football.