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Ali Abdul (Korean: 알리 압둘), also referred to as Player 199, is a main character in the first season of the South Korean Netflix drama TV series Squid Game. Ali is a migrant worker from Pakistan that came to South Korea with his wife and child, and later joined the Squid Game to win the prize money for his family. During the games, Ali joins Seong Gi-hun and Cho Sang-woo's team.

He was portrayed by Anupam Tripathi, and voiced by Rama Vallury in the English dub.

Personality[]

Ali is an incredibly kind-hearted, naive, and selfless individual and the sweetest player in the games. He is a simple, sincere and caring person, determined to protect his family and friends. Ali does not hesitate to help others and never demonstrates having self-serving reasons. He also very optimistic and trusting, innocently believing in the goodness in others and expecting them to be good for him.

He came to South Korea looking for a better life but ended up with no money, so he later entered the 33rd Squid Game. However, unlike many contestants in the games, Ali doesn't join because of a debt that was resulted by his own actions, instead he has no money because his boss does not pay him for six months. Being optimistic, Ali continued to work for him, expecting to eventually be paid. Despite being strictly against the Squid Game, as seen when he firmly votes in favor of the termination of the competition after the first game, Ali is willing to risk his own life to gain the money he needs to sustain his wife and one-year-old child, which prompts him to rejoin the games.

He behaves in a polite, friendly and humble way, being always extremely honest. Wishing to be respectful, Ali refers to others like Seong Gi-hun and Cho Sang-woo as "sir/boss" ("sajangnim"). When he is dropped in Seoul after the games are terminated, Ali hesitates to accept the money Sang-woo offers him to take a bus, saying he won't be able to pay him back. Upon accepting the money, however, Ali becomes grateful to Sang-woo and repeatedly thanks him, often recalling Sang-woo's kind gesture afterwards. Ali is considerate to the point that, despite becoming close friends with Sang-woo, he hesitates to accept when Sang-woo asks him to be his game partner in the fourth game because he sees that Gi-hun was about to ask the same to Sang-woo. As Gi-hun and Sang-woo are childhood best friends, Ali only accepts Sang-woo's offer when Gi-hun assures that it is okay because he will look for another game partner. Ali is never seen lying at any point during the games, being open even about his insecurities and disadvantages. Because he is from a foreign country, Ali has little knowledge about Korean children's games. Despite this, he openly admits this to his teammates, although he becomes clearly upset whenever he realizes he doesn't know a game.

During the games, Ali shows to be truly altruistic, being sympathetic and caring even towards strangers. This is seen when he risks himself to save Gi-hun during the first game, even before the two of them knowing each other. This causes Gi-hun to be grateful to him, while Ali is happy that Gi-hun survived. After joining the team that Gi-hun and Sang-woo form to survive the games, Ali shows concern for his teammates when they are in danger and relief when they survive the games. He also actively defends his team. When Jang Deok-su and his gang starts a night riot, Ali saves Gi-hun again by fighting off the attackers who try to kill his friend and helps to protect the team from Deok-su's group. Afterwards, Ali says he was concerned for Oh Il-nam, who was missing and reappeared near the end of the riot.

Throughout the competition, Ali develops a close friendship with Sang-woo. Ali becomes very grateful when Sang-woo helps him in Seoul and even more as Sang-woo aids him during the games. Sang-woo is the one who often reassures Ali about his insecurities, explaining to him the rules of the Korean games, causing Ali to admire and respect him. In turn, Sang-woo starts to genuinely care about Ali, recognizing his physical strength and enjoying his sincerity. After Sang-woo saved their team in the Tug-of-War game, Ali is once again grateful and wishes to retribute Sang-woo's goodness towards him. This makes Ali save the corn the staff gave him for dinner to give it to Sang-woo, showing his care for him. When Sang-woo says that Ali can call him "older brother" ("hyung") instead of "sir/boss" ("sajangnim"), Ali becomes very happy. Ali quickly becomes attached to this word, feeling that even within the terrible reality of the games, he has someone who can be with him until the end.^[1]

Because of his care for Sang-woo, Ali becomes happy and confident when Sang-woo chooses him as his partner before the Marbles game. However, he then is heartbroken when he finds out that they will have to play against each other. Ali is hesitant and pained to play with Sang-woo, even asking a masked soldier to change his partner because he realizes that Sang-woo is losing and he doesn't want to cause his friend's death. Despite this, Ali determination to help his family outside the games makes him unwilling to die for Sang-woo when his friend begs for his life. As result of his desire to help both his own family and Sang-woo, Ali faces a dilemma. So, when his friend says that there is a way for them both to survive the games, Ali shows to be trusting and innocent enough to believe in Sang-woo. This ends up being a lie as Sang-woo decides to trick Ali to survive the game. Because of his naivety, Ali believes in Sang-woo until the very end. After Sang-woo left him, Ali looks for him, repeatedly calling out to him in his last moments. Upon realizing he was tricked by his closest friend in the competition, however, Ali shows no anger towards Sang-woo. Ali is just confused and devastated as soldier shoots him, eliminating him from the Squid Game. Ultimately, Ali was just too innocent and pure to survive the cruelty of the games.

Relationships[]

Squid Game Result[]

Trivia[]

• Ali and Player 276 are the only players who aren't Korean, and they are both from Pakistan.^[2]
• Hwang Dong-hyuk (the director of the series) joked about Ali helping Gi-hun in the first game, because if Ali didn't do anything, Gi-hun would have simply fallen to the ground, which seems to be safer than trying to stand still while Ali holds him.^[3]
• Despite what happens in the series, when asked who is the most memorable character of Squid Game, Anupam Tripathi (Ali's actor) replied Cho Sang-woo, saying he admires Sang-woo's determination to keep going despite of everything.^[4]
• Anupam Tripathi explained that he doesn't see what Sang-woo did to Ali in the Marbles game as betrayal. Instead, Tripathi saw it like what a practical person can do in extreme situations.^[5][6]
  • Anupam Tripathi also said that he also would have trusted in Sang-woo if he was in Ali's place in the Marbles game, because Sang-woo had helped him survive in the competition until that point and they had become close friends. He also doesn't think that Ali was stupid for believing in Sang-woo, instead he feels that the character is just innocent.^[6]
  • In interviews, Anupam Tripathi and Park Hae-soo (Sang-woo's actor) both compared Ali and Sang-woo's close relationship in the show to their friendship in real life. Hae-soo said that Ali is his "soulmate" within the series and also in real life.^[7][6]

References[]

External Links[]

• Ali Abdul on the Pure Good Wiki
• Ali Abdul on the Squid Game Wiki

Navigation[]

Heroes

Players Seong Gi-hun | Cho Sang-woo | Kang Sae-byeok | Ali Abdul | Han Mi-nyeo | Ji-yeong Others Hwang Jun-ho