Younis Mahmoud

Early career

Mahmoud started out as a basketball player, playing as a shooting guard for the Kahrabaa Al-Dibis basketball team. The team's football coach, Muwafaq Nouraddin, persuaded him to switch to football as there was more money involved in football in Iraq, so Mahmoud joined Shaabiya Al-Dibis and then began playing for Kahrabaa Al-Dibis football team in the fourth division of Iraqi football. He became a regular player for the side.

Kirkuk

In 1999, Mahmoud moved to Kirkuk's biggest team, Kirkuk FC, and scored his first league goal for Kirkuk in Round 8 of the 1999–2000 Iraqi Premier League (then known as the Iraqi First Division League) in a 3–0 win over Al-Kadhimiya. He scored a penalty kick in Round 12 in a 6–1 loss against Al-Diwaniya and scored two goals in Round 13 in a 2–2 draw with Al-Ramadi. His fifth goal came in a 1–1 draw with Al-Naft in Round 35 (although the result was changed to a 3–0 defeat due to the fielding of an ineligible player), and he scored again in Round 39 in a 1–0 win over Al-Karkh. Kirkuk failed to qualify for the 2000–01 Iraqi Premier League (then known as the Iraqi Elite League) and therefore played in the second-tier, but they managed to get promoted back to the top division at the first time of asking by winning the league, with Mahmoud being the second-highest scorer of the second-tier with 19 goals. At Kirkuk, he was discovered by scouts of Baghdad-based teams Al-Shorta and Al-Talaba, two of Iraq's biggest clubs, and…

In March 2002, while many were questioning his temperament and lack of experience, coach Adnan Hamad named Mahmoud in his squad for Iraq's training camp in Italy and gave him his first start against Serie B club Cagliari Calcio and he later went on to score. Mahmoud's full international debut was against Syria in a friendly in Baghdad on 19 July 2002. His 1st goal came in the final of the 2002 WAFF Championship in the 89th minute to take the game to extra-time, where Iraq won through Haidar Mahmoud's golden goal. In his next match for Iraq, a 2004 AFC Asian Cup qualifier, he scored 4 goals against Bahrain and then went on to score a hat-trick against Malaysia. He scored 6 goals for the Olympic team in the 2003 Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Friendship Cup, including a hat-trick against Al-Nassr and the only goal in the final against Morocco, as Iraq won the cup. His achievements in 2003 saw him get nominated for the Asian Young Footballer of the Year. He was part of Iraq's 2004 Olympic Games qualifying squad and scored goals against Oman and Kuwait as Iraq managed to qualify. Mahmoud scored 1 goal in the 2004 Asian Cup against Saudi Arabia, and in the Olympic Games finals, Iraq finished in 4th place and Mahmoud scored 1 goal, against Portugal. Iraq participated in the 2005 West Asian Games and Mahmoud scored 3 goals in the tournament, including a goal in the final which Iraq went on to win to claim the gold medal. In 2006, Iraq participated in the Asian Games and reached the…

On 23 May 2026, Mahmoud was elected president of the Iraq Football Association, having served as deputy to Adnan Dirjal since 2021.

Younis Mahmoud is an Arab Sunni Muslim. He has married three times. His younger brother Omar Mahmoud is also a footballer.