‘Lion of Mesopotamia’: How Aymen Hussein beat tragedy to reach World Cup

It has been a long, relentless journey to the World Cup for Iraq’s centre-forward Aymen Hussein, who propelled his country to the tournament for the first time in 40 years when he scored a winning goal against Bolivia in Mexico in the qualifiers.

When he was just 12 and already playing football for a local team, his father was brutally murdered while buying materials to build the family home.

A few years after that, his older brother was kidnapped, and he has not been heard from since.

“I decided to quit playing football to take care of my family, but my mother refused,” Hussein said in an interview.

His mother told him: “It is your dream. I know that. And you have to achieve it.”

Born in 1996 in the village of al-Safra, in al-Hawija district in north-central Iraq, Hussein grew up in a family who made their living farming and raising sheep.

Tragedy struck in 2008 when his father, a soldier in the Iraqi army, was killed by al-Qaeda, which controlled Kirkuk and the surrounding areas at the time.

“He went to buy some materials for our new, under-construction house. A few hours later, we received a call saying Your father has been killed and his body is in the hospital’.”