Galatasaray beat Göztepe 3-2 away from home in the 26th round of the Turkish League, in a match that saw four penalties – two for each team, the last of which was turned at 90 + 9 by Bafetimbi Gomis, who scored two goals and awarded the Istanbul team. The first victory in over a month.

But all of this is secondary to overcoming the story of Omar Al-Abdlawi, who returned to competition on Monday after being banned from competing for nearly 14 months.

On New Year’s Eve from 2020 to 2021, the Norwegian international was seriously injured by the explosion of a fire bomb and caused serious injuries to his eyes, especially his right.

To regain his sight, Abdlawi performed 11 times. For six months in a row, he made the Cincinnati Eye Institute, in the United States, his first home. The doctor who accompanied him told him he had a 5 to 10 percent chance of restoring sight in his right eye and that his injury was one of the worst he had seen in his 35-year career. Returning to competing at the highest levels was almost as unlikely as regaining his sight.

Prior to the eye reconstruction, Al-Abdlawi underwent her eyelid reconstruction, and her sister and the anonymous donor also played an instrumental role in the success of the corneal transplant, which was performed in September 2021.

This Monday, the ordeal of Abed Alawi ended: with a new one a lookThe 30-year-old Norwegian footballer, now wearing glasses, is back in competition for the first time since December 26, 2020, starting with the match that marked Galatasaray’s return to winning ways.

At the end of the game, he raised his hands to the sky and moved. And it wasn’t for less.