{"id":913,"date":"2019-12-10T23:12:28","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T12:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theasiangame.net\/?p=913"},"modified":"2026-09-23T14:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T04:49:16","slug":"the-man-behind-the-lions-of-mesopotamia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiangame.net\/ro\/the-man-behind-the-lions-of-mesopotamia\/","title":{"rendered":"The man behind the Lions of Mesopotamia"},"content":{"rendered":"
Picture this. It’s the semi final of the AFC Asian Cup and your nation is one of the final four teams left after a pulsating quarter final win over your biggest rivals.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The players walk out, wearing the flag of your country on their chest, representing you and all your people. The anthem rings out, the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The flutters in your stomach start to get a little stronger as the nerves kick in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s a moment of myriad emotions – pride, nerves, excitement, fear. But it’s a moment every fan dreams of and that moment alone is enough for most fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now imagine this – you personally are responsible for one quarter of that side walking out on the pitch. Without you they likely would not be there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not only is this your country, this is, in effect, your<\/em> side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not the stuff of fantasy, however. This is the story of Iraq’s Yousif Al-Khafajy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Born in Baghdad, Al-Khafajy and his family – he is the oldest of four children, with three younger sisters – moved to Dubai when he was just seven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite his tender age, the memories of Baghdad remained vivid in his memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“When you say Baghdad, the first thing I remember is the river – the Tigris River,” he told The Asian Game<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The bridges, the smell of the city. My grandad always used to take me to the centre of the city, like the old district of the city. We used to take the boats to cross the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I always remember these memories, I will never forget it. It will always stick in my mind.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he was just ten, starting a new life in cosmopolitan Dubai, a young Al-Khafajy had to watch on as war broke out in Iraq, decimating large swathes of the country and forever altering the image of Iraq for a generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Baghdad is a very beautiful city, it\u2019s quite unfortunate what happened to it, but it\u2019s getting back there hopefully,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“By the time I was growing up in Dubai I was getting this impression from everyone I met that the only thing they knew about Iraq was the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“And this kind of bothered me, it grew something in me that I wanted to change that because I was reading about Iraq from a very young age and I always knew Iraq had a great history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It was the cradle of civilisation and Iraq was much more than just a war zone. So since I was little I always wanted to change this idea about Iraq, and not just in football, but in general.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like most teenagers from the Gulf, Al-Khafajy was obsessed with football and it was through his love of the sport that he found the avenue he needed to help his country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Learning of players abroad – in Europe and other parts of the world – with Iraqi heritage, or Iraqis that had been displaced by war, he wondered whether they could one day play for the national team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, enlisting the help of some other like-minded fans, he set about tracking down players all over the world and asking them directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I started a Facebook page, just for fun, you know a 17-18-year-old kid starting a Facebook page, and back in the day there weren\u2019t many Iraqis on social media because it was relatively new,” Al-Khafajy, who also has a keen interest in architecture, a subject he studied at university, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“So I started the page and invited a few of the bloggers to come and join me and focus on these players.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, together with Akam Qaser and Ali Shaheem they set about getting in touch with players from the Iraqi diaspora around the world to see if they would be interested in playing for Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In most cases (the) players did respond because they were happy,” he explained. “Because we gave them the opportunity to play for Iraq and be international players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Obviously time went by, we started getting in contact with these players, we started promoting these players in Iraqi media, letting media know about them, letting the national team know about them and here we are now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It almost sounds too easy – contact player, player says yes, player plays for national team. But nothing in sport, especially in Iraq, is ever so easy. So what exactly is the process once a player has been contacted and confirmed they would be interested?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Obviously any player is not part of the Iraqi football system,” the shy and softly spoken Al-Khafajy explains. “They\u2019ll have a different citizenship, they\u2019ll have played football in a different country. Officially they\u2019ll have no record in Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“So when we contact the player and they show interest, what we do first is we start publishing about them, we say \u2018hey, there\u2019s a new talent we scouted, he plays in this league\u2019, we publish this for the fans and for the media. Sometimes the TV channels they take this information, (and) they publish it. So obviously you get the right attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n