Hussam Fawzi

infobox football biography
playername = Hussam Fawzi


fullname = Hussam Fawzi Naji
height =
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1974|9|3
countryofbirth = flagicon|IRQ|1963 Iraq
nickname =
years = 1995-2005
2005
clubs = Al-Zawraa
Pegah
currentclub =
clubnumber =
position = Striker, Second striker
youthclubs =
youthyears =
caps(goals) =
nationalyears = 1996-2004
nationalteam = Iraq
nationalcaps(goals) = 0? 0(3)
pcupdate = 2 May 2008
ntupdate = 2 May 2008

Hussam Fawzi Naji (born 3 September 1974) is an Iraqi footballer who is a forward, and former captain of the Iraq national football team.

International career

He represented Iraq whilst playing his club football at Al-Zawraa. He played for in Iraq at the time when Uday Hussein was in charge of the national team. Hussam was included in the 1996 and 2000 squads for the Asian Cup.

The Iraqi football team came into public attention when newspapers started publishing stories of how Uday was known to punish players physically for achieving poor results in matches. This was used as one of the many reasons used by Tony Blair for justifying the Iraq war..

As a result of difficulties and the resulting Iraq war Hussam was unable to play international football for a while, however with theoverthrow of Saddam Hussein football started to be played again - The Iraqi league had previously been suspended since March 2003.Hussam captained Iraq for the first time on 13 August 2003 against Iran in the first international after this, and for the determination in a difficult time, the 2003 FIFA Presidential Award was presented to the the Iraqi footballing community, whom Husam represented at the award cermony as the National Team captain. [Cite web|url=http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/awards/gala/news/newsid=90284.html|title=Stars come out for 13th FIFA World Player Gala|publisher="FIFA"]

After the war Hussam spoke about his experiences in London, saying:

He also admitted the after the Iraqi players were relieved the past was behind themCite web|url=http://www.rediff.com/sports/2004/may/20iraq.htm|title=Iraqi team rise from ashes of war|publisher="Reuters"] but he refused to justify the war.Cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/playing-at-home-is-out-so-iraqi-national-team-rattles-in-goals-on-tour-565116.html|title=Playing at home is out, so Iraqi national team rattles in goals on tour|publisher="The Independent"]

International Goals

:"Scores and results list Iraq's goal tally first."

[http://www.iraqsport.com/blog/?page_id=26 Source]

References

* [http://www.national-football-teams.com/v2/player.php?id=3296 Profile on national-football-teams.com]