Abdul-Ghani Shahad

Abdul-Ghani Shahad (born 7 March 1968) is an Iraqi professional football coach and former player who is currently 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-club man throughout his career.

His first season in 1986/87 was in the second division, and were promoted to the second division one year later.

From 1987 onwards, Al Najaf slowly established itself as an important team in the Iraqi league, moving gradually from mid table towards title-contention.

Abdul-Ghani was a fixture of the team from '87 onwards alongside Ali Hashim, Hassan Jawad, Mohammed Abdul-Hussein, Haidar Najim, with the team managed by legendary Najih Humoud.

The team peaked in the late '90s finishing 3rd in the 94–95 season, and second in the 95–96 season.

Abdul-Ghani was an unused substitute as Al Najaf won its first ever silverware, the 7th Umm al-Ma'arik Championship.

Upon his retirement in 1999, he went into coaching and managed his hometown club Al-Najaf for 7 years, achieving a second-place finish.

He moved around and managed a number of Iraqi sides, before winning his first Iraqi Premier League title with Naft Al-Wasat.

Abdul-Ghani went on to be appointed as manager of the Iraqi U23 national team, where he guided the team towards Olympic qualification and a third place finish in the AFC U-22 Championship.

Abdul-Ghani started his career as a 19 year old with Al Najaf, and he remained loyal to his boyhood club for 12 years until his retirement in 1999.

Towards 1999 Abdul-Ghani has become a bench player who saw very little playtime, so he retired and became the interim manager for 15 matches.

Abdul-Ghani Shahad never represented Iraq at any level.

Abdul Ghani Shahad become the interim manager of Al Najaf in 1999, where he managed the team for 15 games, winning 7 games.

Despite his impressive record, Abdul-Ghani was relegated to assistant manager, due to his inexperience.

Abdul Ghani Shahad's first full season in charge of Al Najaf was the 2002-03 season, which was cancelled after 29 rounds due to the American Invasion of Iraq with Al-Najaf being in second place before the outbreak of the war.

During the season Al Najaf only lost 3 matches and were serious title contenders.

The following season was abandoned midway through because of the security situation in the country.

The 2004/05 season was the first full season which was completed since the start of the Iraq War, Abdul-Ghani Shahad led Al Najaf to be second on the Euphrates Group, with only one loss.

In the Elite stage, Al Najaf finished second in their group, behind Al-Zawraa, and failed to qualify to the championship playoffs.

The 2005/06 season was the standout season for Abdul Ghani Shahad and Al Najaf.

Abdul Ghani Shahad led the team to a second place finish in the Central Group A, which meant the qualified to the Elite stage for the second season running.

In the Elite stage, Al Najaf managed to finish first in their group and qualifying to the championship playoff, they beat Erbil in the semifinal 5-2 on aggregate.

The final against Al-Zawraa was played in Sulaymaniyah on June 24, 2006, the match went to penalties scoreless.

Uday Omran and Chasib Sultan missed their penalties as Al-Najaf lost, 4–3, on penalties.

Despite the loss, it was still Al Najaf's joint-best league position.

Finishing second also meant that Al Najaf qualified to the AFC Champions League for the first time ever.

The following season, Al Najaf finished 3rd in their group and were eliminated from the AFC Champions League.

Meanwhile in the league, Al Najaf once again reached the playoff contention, however they lost to Erbil SC in the semi-final, while they beat Al-Talaba SC in the third place playoff, and qualified to the Arab Champions League.

In the 2007/08 season, Al Najaf once again made the playoffs but failed to reach the semi-final.

They were also eliminated from the Arab Champions League in the second round.

Following the end of the season, Abdul-Ghani got an offer from giants Al-Talaba SC which he took.

Under Abdul Ghani, Al Talaba failed to qualify to the playoffs in the 2008/09 season after finishing 3rd in group B, 3 points behind second place Al Amana.

The performance was deemed unsatisfactory and he was subsequently relieved of his duties as manager of Al Talaba.

Following his sacking, Abdul Ghani signed for Karbala on the 15th of June 2009.

Following the 2009/10 season, Abdul-Ghani returned once again to his boyhood club Al Najaf.

He led the time to finish 4th in group B, an impressive jump from 11th position in the season prior.

Karbala were eliminated in the Elite stage after finishing third behind Duhok SC and Al Quwa Al Jawiya.

Following his impressive stint with Karbala, Abdul Ghani returned to Al Najaf.

His first season ended on a disappointing note after Al Najaf finished in 6th place and were 18 points behind playoff contention.