Iraqi footballer (born 1996)
Ayman Hussein Ghadhban Al-Mafreaji (Arabic: أيمن حسين; born 22 March 1996) is an Iraqi professional footballer who plays as a striker for Iraqi Premier League side Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya and the Iraqi national team.
Club career
In 2009, Hussein was spotted as a gifted teenager with his local team and it was because of a local resident who was also a board member at the Al-Alam SC who recommended the player to his club. He played for youth Al-Alam in the provincial league, and for the first team and then moved to Tuz FC, and with no club from Kirkuk in the top divisions in the Iraqi league, Aymen took the unorthodox route in his attempts into getting into a top flight of the Iraqi Premier League by signing for Gas Al-Shamal a club [3] which was then in the second tier of the Kurdistan League, a division formed of primarily reserve players from the top Kurdish clubs.
Duhok
At the end of the season 2012–13, Hussein was offered the opportunity to play in the Iraqi Premier League for the first time when he was contacted by the assistant coach of Duhok, Khalid Mohammed Sabbar and was offered a lucrative contract to play for the club which Hussein said he agreed to immediately amid “great joy” working under the former Iraq captain and the two renowned coaches Syrian Fajr Ibrahim and Thair Ahmed during his spell with Duhok.
He appeared only a few times for Duhok scoring one goals in the first stage of the season, however with salaries going unpaid for months at the cash-strapped club feeling the full ramifications of the financial crisis which had hit the Kurdistan region, Hussein made the decision to try his luck in Baghdad. He had been one of six players at Duhok released due to their financial troubles during the latter part of the 2014.[4]
Al Naft
Hussein transferred to Al-Naft in winter 2015.[5] His breakthrough season came in the 2016–17 season for Al Naft, where he scored 12 goals in 10 games launching Al Naft to the top of the league, before an injury prevented him sidelined all the way from February[6] till May.[7] Al Naft continued on their impressive set of results and ended up finishing as the league runners up, which is their best ever result.[8]
Al Shorta
On 22 August 2017, Hussein signed for Iraqi giants Al Shorta,[9] to replace Marwan Hussein. He made his debut on 21 November, scoring in the matchday one fixture against Karbalaa FC.[10] He scored twice in his second game, a 4–1 win over Al-Bahri,[11][12] he then scored in two more games, to extend his scoring record to four games in a row.[13] On the fifth game,[14][15] Hussein missed a last-minute penalty to end his goal-scoring streak.[16] Aymen would then leave the Al-Shorta camp to join the Iraqi U-23 side in the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship in China. After his return he leave the Al Shorta.
Return to Al Naft
On 2 February 2018, Hussein returned to his former club Al-Naft[17] with his favorite coach Hassan Ahmed.[18] Hussein started his first match with Al Naft against Al-Hudood FC, he missed a penalty[19] and another against Naft Al-Wasat.[20] After five games he scored goal against Al-Talaba in the 1–0 victory in April and continued to score.[21] He finished his season with Al Naft with 11 goals in 22 matches in the league.[22] The team finished in 3rd position. He was released from Al-Naft after the game against CS Sfaxien 1–1,[23] because of disagreements.[24][25][26]
CS Sfaxien, Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya and Umm Salal
On 15 September 2018, Tunisian club Sfaxien announced on the last day of the summer transfer window the signing of Hussein.[27] He made his first appearances in the Tunisian league in February 2019, followed by his return to Iraq to join Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya, where he played for the next two seasons.
In the summer 2021, Hussein joined Umm Salal in Qatar.[28] He later played for Al-Markhiya also in Qatar and Al-Jazira in the United Arab Emirates.
Raja CA and return to Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya
On 23 August 2023, Hussein signed a renewable one-year contract with Moroccan side Raja CA.[29] In October 2023, Hussein returned to Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya after ending his contract with Raja due to the lack of playing time.[30]
International career
Hussein first represented Iraq in 2015, also playing for the U23 Iraqi team. He was called up to the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship in Qatar.[31] He scored the winning goal in the third-place playoff match against Qatar, which won Iraq the bronze medal and sent them to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games,[32][33] Hussein was injured in a friendly match with the senior team against Syria on 18 March 2016, preventing him from going to the Olympics.
The following year, Hussein was present at the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship qualification, he scored 5 goals in the first match against Afghanistan.[34] He also scored another goal against Saudi Arabia, to ensure that Iraq won all three games and qualified for the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship.[35] Hussein scored twice in three games in the tournament, as Iraq went out in the quarter-finals.
On 26 August 2015, Hussein earned his first international cap,[36] playing against Lebanon in a friendly match. He scored his first goal against the United Arab Emirates on September 5, 2017, in a 1–0 victory in a World Cup qualifying match.[37] He was called up to the 23rd Arabian Gulf Cup, where Iraq ended up reaching the semi-finals.
In December 2023, he was named in the Iraqi squad for the Asian Cup in Qatar.[38] On 19 January 2024, he scored a brace in a 2–1 victory over Japan which qualified his country to the knockout stages of the Asian tournament. That match also recorded the first win for Iraq against Japan since the 1982 Asian Games.[39][40] In the round of 16 match against Jordan, he scored a goal to grant his team a 2–1 lead, before receiving a controversial second yellow card for his celebration, in a match ended in a shock 3–2 defeat for Iraq with Jordan scoring two goals in the stoppage time.[41]
Style of play
Hussein is seen as the typical complete forward who can play up front. Not seen as the most versatile, but he is a natural goalscorer. While other strikers such as Mohanad Ali score many goals, they are a different type of striker to Aymen, who is good in and around the box in the air and on the ground. He has a powerful right foot. He is also known for his large stature, physical strength and diligence. Since 2015, he has been seen as the best heir to former international striker Younis Mahmoud.
Personal life
Hussein was born[42][33] in the rural village of Al-Safra in the Hawija district of Kirkuk, which had been controlled by ISIS and has been the scene of coalition air-strikes from 2014 to 2017. Insurgents have frequently targeted oil pipelines in the village since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, with car bombs, suicide bombings and improvised explosive device (IED) blasts becoming a normal part of life for Hussein. His father, an officer in the Iraqi Army, was killed on duty by an al-Qaeda attack in 2008.[33] His brother was kidnapped by ISIS and his whereabouts are still unknown,[33] while he and his family became internally displaced within Iraq since 2014.[43][4]
