Mohammed Mezher Herez El Ayawi ( ar, محمد مزهر; born 24 March 1998) is an

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

i professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Al-Shorta Al-Shorta Sports Club ( ar, نادي الشرطة الرياضي, lit=''Police Sports Club'') is an Iraqi sports club based in Al-Rusafa, Baghdad. It has teams in 17 different sports, more than any other Iraqi club, and the best known sectio ...

in the Iraqi Premier League.

Club career

Naft Maysan

Mezher started his career at boyhood club

Naft Maysan Naft Maysan SC (also known as Naft Missan) ( ar, نادي نفط ميسان, lit=Maysan's Oil) is an Iraqi professional football club based in Amarah, Maysan that competes in the Iraqi Premier League, the top flight of football in Iraq. History ...

, where he came up the youth ranks before making his debut for the first-team in 2017 in the Iraqi Premier League.

Al-Shorta

In January 2020, after impressing for

in their league match against defending champions

as well as the Iraq U-23s at the

2020 AFC U-23 Championship The 2020 AFC U-23 Championship was the fourth edition of the AFC U-23 Championship, the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 national teams of Asia. ...

, the league's defending champions signed Mezher on loan until the end of the season, alongside teammate Akram Raheem, ahead of the season restart and their

2020 AFC Champions League The 2020 AFC Champions League was the 39th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 18th under the current AFC Champions League title. Ulsan Hyundai won their second Champion ...

campaign. Mezher quickly established himself as a key player for Al-Shorta, filling the gaps left by national team stars Amjad Attwan and Safaa Hadi excellently as they headed to Kuwait and Russia, respectively, to join Kuwait SC

Krylia Sovetov Samara PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara (russian: Профессиональный футбольный клуб «Крылья Советов» Самара) is a football club from Russia based in Samara. It returned to the Russian Premier League for the 20 ...

, starting all three of Al-Shorta's league matches as well as both Champions League matches, impressing in all five before the season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. At the end of the season, Al-Shorta made his loan deal permanent.

International career

Iraq U-23

Mezher was called up to the Iraqi olympic team in 2019, helping his country qualify for the

, where he played all three matches.

Iraq

Following his impressive performances at the

and his new club

, Mezher was called up to the senior Iraqi national team for the first time in June 2020, as the 35-man squad entered a one-month long training camp ahead of Iraq's

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualificationAlso the "FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers". was the qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Parallel tour ...

matches. On 12 November 2020, Mezher made his international debut with Iraq against

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

in a friendly. He won his second cap for Iraq on 17 November 2020, when he captained his country to a 2-1 victory over

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...

. He then got called up to the preliminary squad in March 2022 ahead of the last two games of the Third Round of qualifiers by new interim boss

Abdul-Ghani Shahad Abdul-Ghani Shahad (born 7 March 1968) is an Iraqi professional football coach and former player who is current manager of Naft Al-Wasat SC in the Iraqi Premier League. Abdul-Ghani started his playing career at Al-Najaf FC and remained a one c ...

Honours

Club

;

* Iraqi Premier League: 2021–22 * Iraqi Super Cup:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

References

External links

* 1998 births Living people Iraqi men's footballers Iraq men's international footballers Al-Shorta SC players People from Maysan Governorate Men's association football midfielders {{Iraq-footy-midfielder-stub