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It has been a long and bumpy journey to the World Cup for Iraq forward Aymen Hussein, who took his country to the tournament for the first time in 40 years when he scored the winning goal against Bolivia in Mexico in the qualifiers.
When he was only 12 years old and already playing football for the local team, his father was brutally murdered while buying building materials for the family.
A few years later, his older brother was kidnapped, and he hasn’t been heard from since.
“I decided to stop playing football to take care of my family, but my mother refused,” Hussein said in an interview.
“He asked me to continue playing.”
His mother told him: “It’s your dream.”
And he has been clinging to that dream ever since.
A legacy of violence
Hussein was born in 1996 in the village of al-Safra, in al-Hawija district in north-central Iraq, and grew up in a farming and sheep-raising family.
Tragedy struck in 2008 when his father, who was a soldier in the Iraqi army, was killed by al-Qaeda, which controlled the city of Kirkuk and the surrounding areas at the time.
“He went to buy materials to build our new house, which is not well built.” A few hours later, we received a call that your father has been killed and his body is in the hospital.
He had been shot very brutally in the heart.
At first we didn’t believe it, but then we went to the hospital and found my father’s body inside.
Hussein asked his family to leave the village, but his older brother, who joined the Iraqi army after his father was killed, refused.
So, instead of fleeing, Hussein joined the Iraqi youth soccer team. He was on his way back from a training camp in Turkey a few years later when he learned that his brother was missing – kidnapped during the ISIL (ISIS) invasion of the region.
He said: “We have not heard anything about him.”
‘I was ready to play for free’
In the midst of this tragedy, Hussein’s football career took off.
In 2012, things changed when he was scouted by Dohuk football club, one of the Iraqi Stars League teams in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Hussein signed a contract for 18 million Iraqi dinars ($14,000) and a monthly salary of 1.2 million Iraqi dinars ($920).
“Honestly, I was ready to play for free,” he recalls. “You can’t imagine what it meant to me to play with the players of the Iraqi national team at that time. Playing with Dohuk was the dream of my life at that time.”
Eighteen months later, he moved to Baghdad to play for Iraqi Stars League teams including Al-Shorta, Al-Talaba and Al-Zawraa, becoming the league’s top scorer. Most recently, he signed a contract with Qatar’s Al Khor club before returning to Iraq to join Al Karma.
In a contract worth $1m, he has become the most expensive player in Iraq.
Through it all, Hussein says, his father and brother have been at the forefront of his mind.
“I have always wished that my father and brother were still alive to see what I have achieved and share the happy moments.”
He remembers some of the proud moments he wishes he had.
In 2016, he scored the second goal in extra time, defeating Qatar to the final Olympic qualification place of the Asian countries at the Rio de Janeiro Games in the third match of the AFC Under-23 Asian Cup Championship in Doha.
In 2023, Aymen was recognized as the top scorer in the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup. He scored three goals which led to his team winning the cup.
In 2024, Hussein scored one of the two goals that helped Iraq qualify for the Paris Olympics with a 2-1 victory over Indonesia in the third round.
The lions are roaring
The last time the Lions of Mesopotamia – as Iraq’s national team is known – qualified for the World Cup was in 1986, ten years before Hussein was born.
Now, all eyes are on him as fans bank on his participation to take the team as far as possible in the championship.
“Aymen is a name that does not need to be mentioned. His performances speak for him not only in Iraq, but in the region and Arab football,” Jalal Hassan, an Iraqi football player and vice-captain, told Al Jazeera.
“He is a top player. The team needs him a lot, and his presence will make a big difference in the World Cup. We expect a lot from him.”
Placed in Group 9 with France, Senegal and Norway, Iraq faces tough competition from the finals.
Hussein Saeed, Iraq’s former captain and the country’s best player with 78 goals under his belt, is optimistic. “Aymen’s influence is visible on the team and all the players. He, as a person, has a lovely and humble personality,” Saeed told Al Jazeera.
“I hope he can use this to his advantage in the upcoming World Cup, and take this team to the finals.”
Zaid Alsaraj, an Iraqi football journalist, says, “We all wish that our team and all the players, especially Abu Tubar (“Hatchet Man”, as Iraqis call Hussein), will be well prepared mentally, physically and technically, when the time comes.
As for himself, Hussein says he is just hoping some of the fans will be able to attend – although it will be difficult.
“It’s not easy to get a US visa. Actually, it’s impossible for Iraqis, especially at the moment, because the US-Iranian war is still going on,” Iraqi soccer fan Saif Al-Bayati told Al Jazeera.
“This is not the only issue. The price of one ticket is more than 3,000 dollars. Going there and spending several weeks can cost a lot of money. It can be more than 15,000 dollars. This is impossible for an ordinary Iraqi fan.”
