Hussein Saeed.. The story of the historical scorer of the Lions of Mesopotamia

One of the best Iraqi football players throughout history, the historical top scorer for the first team, he was considered, along with Ahmed Radi, the best Iraqi player in the twentieth century, is the seventh international scorer for the Lions of Mesopotamia, which occupies the twenty-fifth place in the list of the best players of the century in Asia.

He is Hussein Saeed Mohammed, the former president of the Iraqi Football Association, who was born in Adhamiya, Baghdad January 21, 1958, he started playing football in the streets before joining the Iskaan Youth Center, which led him to the Iraq Youth Centers Championship, and scored a hat-trick in the 4/2 victory over the team Al-Zawra youth, to attract the attention of Daoud Al-Azzawi, director of the Iraq U-17 team, who summoned him to the university team, and led him to win the golden medal for the Arab school session hosted by Egypt in 1975, then joined the Student Club, and his first match was against the Al-shorta and ended 3/0. He scored in that match, while his first goal was with Al-Ankieh in his second match against Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya, which was the winning goal, but the team finished the season in eighth place, and in the 1976/1977 season they came close to achieving the league, but in the end they settled in second place behind Al-Zawra In the 1977/1978 season, Saeed scored three goals, but the team finished the season in eighth place, and in the following season 1978/1979, Saeed achieved the third best scorer in the league and the team finished third, and in the 1979/1980 season, the students finished the season in third place and reached Iraq Cup final but they lost it against the Army team on penalties 2/4, after a 1-1 draw, and the 1980/1981 season witnessed the first student league title win in its history, with a goal difference with the Al-Shorta, and Hussein Saeed was the competition’s top scorer with 11 goals in 11 matches out of the team’s tally that reached 19 goals, he continued with the students for 15 seasons, during which he scored 122 goals, and was the team’s top scorer for ten seasons.

Hussein Saeed was called up from the U-17 team to the U-20 reserve. He participated for the first time in the Asian Youth Championship in 1975, and Iraq and Iran participated in the title after Al-Nasal, and in 1976 he was called up by the new coach Stankovic, and scored 4 goals in Iraq’s first match In front of Sri Lanka, to become the tournament’s top scorer with 7 goals, but Iraq came out of the quarter-final against North Korea, then was called to the first team after the fourth Gulf Cup, and at the age of eighteen, in 1976, he played his first match against the Saudi team in Riyadh and scored Iraq’s goal in the meeting Which ended in a 1-1 draw, and in 1977 Hussein participated in the Asian Youth Championship, which Iraq won the title and Saeed was its top scorer with 9 goals. He also scored his first hat-trick against Afghanistan in a 5-1 victory.

In 1978, Hussein Saeed managed to score three goals leading Iraq to win against Algeria, his first hat-trick with the first team, during preparations for the Asian Games in Thailand.

In 1979 Hussein Saeed scored ten goals, all in the Gulf Championship, which was enough for Iraq to win the cup for the first time. Saeed was called up by the coach of the national team, Wathiq Naji, and had a great role in qualifying Iraq to the World Cup in Mexico, where he starred in the decisive match against the Emirati Whites led by Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Pereira. Wathiq Naji relied on the trio Hussein Saeed, Ahmed Radi and Karim Saddam in achieving the great victory by qualifying Iraq for the first time in its history to the World Cup.

Hussain Saeed presented wonderful matches with the national team in its preparatory meetings for the World Cup against major European teams such as Denmark and Romania, as well as clubs such as Germany’s Schalke 04 and Chelsea in England, some clubs from the Republic of Ireland and the Brazilian club Flamengo, in addition to a training camp in Brazil, and he received an offer for testing from Real Madrid, Spain, participated with the Iraqi national team in the Asian Games in Seoul and scored three goals in only two matches in which he participated, against Oman, one goal and two goals against the Emirates. He led Iraq’s offensive line alongside Ahmed Radi in the Seoul Olympics qualifiers, where he played five matches during which he scored three Goals.

The injury prevented Hussein Saeed from participating with the Iraqi national team in the ninth Gulf tournament in Saudi Arabia in 1988, and in 1989 he led the Iraqi offensive line in the World Cup qualifiers after his temporary recovery, where he participated in five matches, but he scored only one goal against Qatar in the match in which the two teams tied 2 /2 in Baghdad, which led the Iraqi national team to be eliminated from the World Cup qualifiers, and he did not participate due to injury in the Friendship and Peace Tournament in Kuwait.

He returned to the ranks of the Iraqi national team in the Gulf tournament in Kuwait 1990, which was his last occasion. Iraq withdrew from the tournament and Hussein Saeed bid farewell to the football arenas without a retirement match or a permit, and then began his administrative career, during which he held many positions in the Football Association and the Committee Iraqi National Olympic.

Hussein Saeed played 131 matches for the national team, during which he scored 84 goals, to be one of the record holders. He participated in six matches with the military team, during which he scored five goals, and played a match at the Olympic level, during which he scored six goals and participated in the finals of three Olympic Games 1980 – 1984 – 1988. He was chosen as the 25th player of the century for Asia in a list of 30 Asian players in the AFC and International Federations. He was also chosen as the player of the century in Iraq, jointly with the great Ahmed Radi.

Hussain Saeed won the title of top scorer in several tournaments, including the top scorer in the Arab Gulf tournament twice in 1979 and 1984 with 17 goals (Iraq withdrew from the Gulf Cup in 1982 after the Emirates match and all its results were crossed out), top scorer in the Asian Youth Championship twice 1976 and 1977 with 17 goals, top scorer in the league, the Iraqi First Division five times with 57 goals, and he also ranked third in this list in 1980 with ten goals, the fastest goal in the Iraqi league, he scored against Al-Mina Club in the 1980-1981 season within thirty seconds, the Golden Medal of the Asian Youth Championship twice 1975-1977, the Golden Medal of the Arab Gulf Course 1979-1984, The Golden Medal of the Million Million Singapore Round in 1984, the League Top Scorer Medal five times, the League Championship Medal twice with the Student Club,
The Football Association Medal for his great services to Iraqi football, the best player in 1984-1985, the player of the century shared with Ahmed Radi, his name was associated with nine cases – a hat-trick – a total of 28 goals, i.e. more than three goals in each match.

After leaving the stadiums, Hussein Saeed occupied many administrative positions, such as Director of the Office of External Relations in the Iraqi Olympic Committee, Vice President of the Iraqi Football Association, Secretary and Vice-President and Secretary-General of the Iraqi Olympic Committee and before a member of the AFC Fair Play Committee, then a member In the Executive Office of the Asian and Arab Federations, a member of the Media Committee of the International Football Association and the head of the Women’s Football Committee in the Arab Football Association, most recently the President of the Iraqi Football Association 2003/2011, after being selected by the International Football Association.