Mohanad Ali

He scored his first goal with a solo Effort after dribbling past Kara Mbodji and George Kwasi in the 89th minute on 3 October, coming on as a substitute in the 71st minute, in a 2–1 home win against Al-Sailiya.

Mohanad Ali Kadhim Al-Shammari (مهند علي كاظم الشمري, born 20 June 2000), commonly known in Iraq as Mimi (ميمي), is an Iraqi professional footballer who plays as a forward for Iraqi club Al-Shorta and the Iraq national team.

He is known for his positioning, shooting, heading, close ball control and dribbling.

Ali became interested in football as a child and started playing for a local team in the Baghdad Al-Jadida district called Timsah Al-Amin.

He enrolled at the Ammo Baba Football School at the age of six without a trial after coaches had been impressed with the striker.

He then joined the Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya youth team, and he represented them in the Al-Zawraa Youth Championship; he was top scorer at two local tournaments, and was then called up by the Iraq FA to play for Saad Hashim's under-14 team, and with an outstanding performance, he grabbed the attention of the managers of Al-Shorta.

On 24 September 2013, Ali signed a five-year contract with Al-Shorta and took the number 26 shirt.

The club finished 13th in the league.

He became the youngest player to represent Al-Shorta in the club's history at 13 years and 279 days old when he made his competitive debut for the club under Brazilian coach Lorival Santos in the 2013–14 Iraqi Premier League, being substituted onto the field on 85 minutes in the Baghdad Derby against Al-Talaba on 26 March 2014.

Al-Shorta topped the league standings with 43 points from 21 games, although the league was ended prematurely due to the war situation in the country.

In the 2014–15 season, Mohanad played in a four-team friendly competition called the Tournament for the Armed Forces, scoring a penalty in the semi-final shootout which Al-Shorta lost to Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya.

Mohanad was given the number 8 shirt for the 2015–16 season under coach Hakeem Shaker and he scored his first goal for Al-Shorta on 20 September 2015 against Al-Sinaa in the 2015–16 Iraqi Premier League with a header.

He made two starts and nine substitute appearances in the group stage of the league, where Al-Shorta finished 4th in Group 2 to qualify to the Elite Stage.

In the Elite Stage, the club finished in 7th position and Mohanad was used as a substitute for three of their six matches.

He spent the 2016–17 season on loan at Baghdad club Al-Kahrabaa, and finished as the top scorer for the club with 12 goals in 31 league matches, including scoring four goals in the same match against Al-Karkh on 4 January.

After the loan, Ali returned to Al-Shorta and renewed his contract in October 2017 for three years, taking the number 18 shirt.

He scored his first two goals of the season against Naft Al-Junoob in a 2–1 victory in January 2018.

He continued to score regularly throughout the season, forming a partnership with fellow striker Alaa Abdul-Zahra.

He scored his first Baghdad Derby goal against Al-Zawraa on 20 January and scoring in another Baghdad Derby against Al-Talaba on 30 January.

He finished his season with the team with 16 goals and assisted 8 times in 32 appearances in the league.

The team finished in 4th position.

Ali began his season with his team with a new coach, Nebojša Jovović, to exploit his speed as he also took on increasing defensive and creative duties.

Mohanad scored his first goal and provided an assist in a 3–1 away win over Naft Al-Junoob on 21 October.

He scored his second and third in a 3–0 win against Al-Sinaat Al-Kahrabaiya.

On 7 November, Mohanad scored his fourth goal against former club Al-Kahrabaa.

His fifth and sixth goal with his team came on 24 November including an impressive solo Effort, and he scored another extraordinary goal against Al-Naft on 4 March 2019.

Mohanad scored 20 goals and 10 assists in 31 games; he won league with the club.

His good form at club level saw him on the radar of many of European and Asian clubs.

After his successful 2019 AFC Asian Cup campaign with the national team, there were official offers made from Italian clubs Juventus and Cagliari, Czech club Slavia Prague, Danish club Midtjylland, Belgian club Genk, Turkish club Galatasaray, Greek club AEK Athens, Emirati club Al-Ain and Qatari club Al-Duhail but Al-Shorta rejected the offers on 29 January 2019, meaning he would spend the rest of the season at Al-Shorta.

The end of the winter transfer window did not stop clubs from expressing their interest in Mohanad, with Al-Shorta's vice-president Abdul-Wahab Al-Taei stating that offers had also now been made by English club Manchester City, Turkish clubs Fenerbahçe, Hatayspor, Yeni Malatyaspor and İstanbul Başakşehir who sent a delegation in April, Russian club Akhmat Grozny, Qatari club Al-Wakrah and an unnamed Japanese club.

After months of speculation about which club Mohanad would sign with, he completed a move to Qatari side Al-Duhail in July who agreed to pay an undisclosed fee.

On 15 July 2019, he transferred to Qatari side Al-Duhail on a five-year contract, for a reported fee of $1.2 million.

Mohanad made his debut for Al Duhail in the AFC Champions League against Al Sadd on 6 August, coming on as a second-half substitute.

On 30 January 2020, he was sent on loan to Primeira Liga side Portimonense for the rest of the 2019–20 season.

Nineteen days later, Mohanad joined the team.

He made a debut five days later, coming on as a late substitute for Bruno Tabata in a 0–1 away loss against Porto.

On 29 August 2020, he was loaned to Al-Sailiya in Qatar.

Mohanad scored on his debut in a 1–1 draw against Al-Rayyan on 3 September.

Mohanad helped Al-Sailiya win the Qatari Stars Cup for the first major honour in the club's history, scoring a goal in the final.

He also played the first three matches of Al-Sailiya's QFA Cup-winning campaign before suffering a head injury that kept him out of the semi-final and final.