Iraqi soccer fans celebrate end of 40-year World Cup drought
Waad Sana was inspired to open Soccer World in 1986 after seeing the Iraqi national team play in that year's World Cup. 40 years later, Iraq is back in the tournament and Sana is getting around 100 calls each day from fans looking for Iraq national team jerseys. Nick Hagen for NP
Waad Sana was inspired to open Soccer World in 1986 after seeing the Iraqi national team play in that year's World Cup. 40 years later, Iraq is back in the tournament and Sana is getting around 100 calls each day from fans looking for Iraq national team jerseys. Nick Hagen for NPR hide caption
DEARBORN, Mich.— From the sidelines of a sweltering domed field in the Detroit suburbs, Zee Esho keeps his eye on the season opener of the local Iraqi Chaldean soccer league. It's only the first game of the summer, and things are getting heated: a few minutes in and there's already been a yellow card. One of the goalies is yelling so much you'd think the World Cup's Ballon d'Or was at stake.
In this Michigan soccer town where people take the game seriously, excitement is in the air for the World Cup, and especially for one team in particular: Iraq. The Lions of Mesopotamia, as the team is nicknamed, haven't qualified for the World Cup since 1986, so long ago that generations of Iraqis have never seen their team compete in the world's most prominent tournament.
That's the case for 34 year-old Esho, who emigrated from Iraq to Michigan as a kid. But he remembers how, back in his home country, soccer was the only thing that could bring the diverse nation's ethnic and religious groups together even in times of war and unrest.
"Even you see it now," says Esho, marveling at the way the team's victory in the World Cup qualifiers electrified Dearborn's large Iraqi diaspora.
"When they play, you have people from the South, from the North, from the West, from the East, all gathering together to watch the game."
Members of the Iraqi men's national football team sit atop a double-decker bus are cheered on by the fans in the Jadriya area of central Baghdad on April 4, 2026. They were celebrating the country's qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. MURTAJA LATEEF/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Iraqis gather on the streets to watch Iraq play against Bolivia during the FIFA World Cup inter-confederation playoff, in Baghdad, Iraq, April 1, 2026. Thaier Al-Sudani/REUTERS hide caption
