Mexico will forever be a touchstone for Iraqi football. Four decades after a Fernando Quirarte volley stamped their exit papers from the 1986 FIFA World Cup™, the Lions of Mesopotamia are back on the global stage having secured their return via the FIFA Play-Off Tournament in the northeastern city of Monterrey.
In the intervening decades Iraq have dazzled at the Olympics and dominated Asia but stumbled time and again in pursuit of a repeat booking at the sport’s grandest table.
The shadow of that fabled ‘Mexico generation,’ containing the likes of Ahmed Radhi and Hussein Saeed, can now finally fade as a new crop of Iraqi talent, led by Amir Al Ammari, Aymen Hussein and co, prepare for a sophomore session in North America at the FIFA World Cup 2026™.
Iraq coach: Graham Arnold
Having taken charge of a record 72 international matches for Australia, Graham Arnold is now set to join a small band of coaches to have led two different nations from the same confederation at a World Cup.
At Qatar 2022, the now 62-year-old piloted his homeland to the Round of 16 for just the second time. Seven months after leaving the Socceroos, the Sydneysider succeeded Jesus Casas at the Iraq helm and immediately revived their flagging qualification hopes.
The former international forward is set to join the Brazilian Evaristo, who will turn 93 on the day of the team’s second group outing, as the only men to have coached Iraq at a World Cup.
Iraq’s World Cup 2026 fixtures and group
Full World Cup 2026 match schedule
How Iraq qualified for World Cup 2026
Hemmed by the mountain ridges of the Sierra Madre Oriental, Monterrey was the final peak in a long and winding ascent to the World Cup. Basra, Hanoi, Manila, Jakarta, Kuwait City, Seoul, Muscat, Amman, Jeddah and Abu Dhabi were the way stations on an epic, 21-match, qualification campaign.
Things started on a real high, with a perfect six wins from as many matches seeing the nation breeze through the second round of AFC qualifiers before dropped points midway towards the end of the third round led to Casas’ exit.
Ultimately missing out on a direct berth by just a single point, Iraq then headed for a triangular tilt at a sole spot in the fourth round. There, a scoreless draw against hosts Saudi Arabia in October 2025 followed a 1-0 win against Indonesia where this time it was only on goals scored that the nation failed to qualify.
Things were just as tight in the fifth round the following month as an Al Ammari penalty in the 17th minute of added time at the end of a nerve-shredding second leg against United Arab Emirates secured the nation’s place in the Play-Off Tournament.
Seeded through to the final, goals in either half from Ali Al-Hamadi and Aymen Hussein split a Moises Paniagua strike as Iraq pipped Bolivia 2-1 to cap their World Cup return.
Iraq’s World Cup history
Iraq at the FIFA World Cup
Ten years after their current coach was born, and in his hometown, Iraq featured in a World Cup qualification match for the first time, falling 3-1 against Australia at the old Sydney Sports Ground in March 1973. Having withdrawn from the preliminaries for the subsequent edition and after failing in their bid to reach Spain 1982, Iraq finally qualified with a 3-1 aggregate victory over Syria in late 1985.
Six months later, in strikingly unfamiliar yellow kits, they lined up against Paraguay in Toluca, becoming the sixth Arab nation to feature at the World Cup. Sunk by a chipped Romerito strike towards the end of the first half, Iraq were far from outplayed with Khalil Allawi and Hussein Saeed both coming close to scoring.
Unfortunately that was to be the end of Saeed’s tournament as an injury he was nursing on his arrival in Mexico forced him to return home. Karim Saddam took his place in the XI in what was the only change for the nation’s second fixture, against Belgium, where he would partner soon-to-be history maker Ahmed Radhi up front.
A rasping Enzo Scifo strike and a Nico Claesen penalty would ultimately prove to be enough for the Belgians but not before Radhi scored what remains his nation’s only goal at the global finals. Six minutes after Iraq lost midfielder Basil Gorgis to a straight red card, the powerful forward, who passed away due to Covid-19 complications in 2020, controlled a Natiq Hashim through-ball and lashed his shot into the far corner of Jean-Marie Pfaff’s goal.
Having shifted from Toluca to Mexico City for their final fixture, Quirarte’s early second-half goal capped a dominant showing from the hosts against their Asian visitors. In the end, history shows that Iraq departed with three straight defeats and just the lone goal. What it doesn’t show is that the team were highly competitive after a fractured preparation in Brazil in the lead-up to the tournament.
The current generation now have a chance, on the nation’s return to North America, to write a new chapter in Iraq’s football history.
Iraq’s World Cup record holders
Seven players featured in each of Iraq’s matches in 1986, half a dozen from the start and Rahim Hameed who appeared as a substitute in all three fixtures. Sadly, four of those players; Ahmed Radhi, defender Nadhim Shaker, and midfielders Ali Hussein Shihab and Natiq Hashim have subsequently passed away.
That leaves full-backs Khalil Allawi and Ghanim Oraibi, along with Hameed as the only surviving Lions to have played in all of Iraq’s fixtures at the global finals.
Courtesy of his strike against Belgium, Radhi is the only Iraqi to have scored at a World Cup; a mark that the likes of Aymen Hussein and Mohanad Ali will be looking to better.
