Hashim Ridha

Hashim Ridha was a natural goalscorer, deadly around the six-yard box. He started his career at Karbala FC. He started his football career joining the Karbala junior team in 1993. In 1998, he earned a move to Al-Shorta. There he finished as joint top scorer of the 1998/99 season, scoring 19 goals and winning both the best striker and best young player awards. He also scored 14 goals in the 1998/99 Iraq FA Cup, which is the record for the most goals that a player has scored in a single Iraq FA Cup tournament. He was part of the Iraqi Olympic team that failed to qualify for the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney, after losing 5–0 to Jordan, a few days after beating the same team 4–2. After his Olympic disappointments, Hashim was given his first call up to the national team by Najih Humoud during the International Friendly Tournament in 1999, he also was called up by Milan Zivadinovic into the 2000 Asian Cup squad but was one of the players that missed out of a place in Lebanon. In the 2001/02 season, after loan spells at Al-Zawraa and Al-Talaba, he bagged a mighty 32 goals for Al-Shorta and finished as top scorer of the Iraqi Premier League for the second time in his career. He helped Al-Shorta to win three Umm Al Maarek Cup (Mother of All Battles Cup)'s in a row but a recurring injury kept keeping him out of games. He then moved to a professional club, Qatari club Al-Shamal in the 2002/03 season. He scored seven goals for them in that season, the third highest amount in the league.…

Hashim is married and has a daughter named Wadaq. His brother Hussein Ridha played with him at both Karbala and Al-Shorta.

Clubs

Al-Shorta 10th Umm al-Ma'arik Championship: Winner 11th Umm al-Ma'arik Championship: Winner 2001–02 Iraq FA Cup: Runner-up 12th Umm al-Ma'arik Championship: Winner Al-Zawraa 1999–2000 Asian Cup Winners' Cup: Runner-up

Individual

1998–99 Iraqi Premier League: Top scorer (19 goals) 1998–99 Iraq FA Cup: Top scorer (14 goals, record) 2001–02 Iraqi Premier League: Top scorer (32 goals)