Mohannad Abdul-Raheem

Early career

From a young age, the childhood Al-Zawraa supporter and son of a tribal Sheikh would spend his free time on the concrete pitches in his local neighbourhood kicking a ball with friends. It was his late uncle Razzaq who encouraged him to take up the game and coached him with his first shaabiya teams at Najoum Al-Mualameen and Iskan Al-Shaabi, the two main football teams in his local area between Iskan and Mualameen where both sides wanted the talented youngster in their team. Abdul-Raheem had trials with a local club Khutout under Ismail Saleem however he was overlooked and instead started in the Al-Karkh youth system and had a season at Al-Shabab in the second division after he returned from living in Syria to escape the instability of the Iraqi capital – after losing his uncle and brother Mohammed to the violence in Baghdad. His life changed when his late coach Nasrat Nassir at Baghdad's Al-Karkh SC switched him from playing as a wide forward to play upfront in the centre forward position while he was breaking into the Al-Karkh first team.

Al Karkh

Abdul-Raheem began his youth career at his native Al Karkh FC in 2006 and graduated to the first team in 2009. On his debut in the Iraqi league one playoff, Mohannad scored a hat trick and helped Al-Karkh qualify to the Iraqi Premier League. In 2012 Mohannad left Al-Karkh and joined Duhok SC.

Duhok

Three years following his competitive debut, Abdul-Raheem moved to Duhok where he spent two…

Mohannad Abdul-Raheem was called into the Iraq U-19s team becoming the main striker in Hakeem Shaker’s ‘young’ team, scoring a goal in the AFC Youth Championship final and going onto be awarded the 2012 Asian Young Footballer of the Year award. There has been some controversy regarding the player's change of name from Mohanad Abdul-Rahman Kazar to Mohanad Abdul-Rahim Karrar in April 2011 just before he called into the Iraqi youth side, with claims that the player had altered his date of birth from 1989. He was called by Iraq coach Hakeem Shaker to represent Iraq national team first team in the 21st Arabian Gulf Cup replacing Iraq super star Younis Mahmoud, but stating that he would like to play alongside Younis Mahmoud. On 18 January 2013 he played alongside Younis Mahmoud in the Arabian Gulf Cup finale against UAE. Mohannad assisted the equalizer to Younis Mahmoud. however, the match ended 1–2 in the extra time for UAE. He scored his first and second goal for Iraq in a friendly match against Malaysia on 1 February 2013. Mohannad was called up to Iraq's Olympic squad for the 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Iraq finished third in their group behind hosts Brazil, and Denmark with 3 points from 3 draws and thus were eliminated at the group stage.

Iraq U-23

National team goals

Scores and results list Iraq's goal tally first.

Abdulraheem is a physically strong and aggressive lone striker with good skills, tactical intelligence, and confidence in going at opponents with numerical superiority.

Club

Al-Zawraa Iraqi Premier League: 2015–16, 2017–18 Iraq FA Cup: 2016–17, 2018–19 Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Iraq FA Cup: 2022–23

International

Youth team 2012 AFC U-19 Championship: Runners-up 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup: Fourth place 2013 AFC U-22 Championship: Winner National team 21st Arabian Gulf Cup: Runners-up

Individual

2012 AFC U-19 Championship: MVP 2012 Asian Young Footballer of the Year: Winner 2015–16 Iraqi Premier League joint top-scorer (12 goals) 2022–23 Iraqi Premier League top-scorer (18 goals)